Just Gold
by Catwildes
Summary: The employees at a small town kid's restaurant are in for a ride. With a creepy guy and an eccentric set of newfound friends, the new day shift employee, Mabel, has to gather the clues herself to find what's really going on with the mysterious "night shift" before the truth hurts her and her new friends...But can she? [[NEW UPDATE EVERY WEEK]]
1. The New Face of Fazbear's Pizza

_Author's Note:_ Hi there! This is my first story to ever be published on Fanfiction, or published at all, really. Just to give you a little info here; this story is, actually, a _prequel_ to another, much more serious story that I am writing which I may publish, but if I do it will be much later since it's a lot more in-depth. Compared to it, this story is the equivalent of a slice-of-life anime (i'm joking, it's not, but in comparison it seems that way) but it does give really interesting background on the characters you may (or may not!) see in the next story.

Enjoy, and I will leave notes to keep you updated on new chapters.

-cw

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

 **The New Face of Fazbear's Pizza**

"Ah, so basically you'll be the day guard for the time being but there may be some changes in t-the shifts, but everything will be fine. For now." The guy spoke awkwardly. He was kinda dorky and I could tell he was important to this new boss of mine. He was the manager of the place as far as I knew. At least he _looked_ the part. Everyone else wore the plain ugly purple polo with the Pizzeria's logo on it while he wore a long sleeve button down white shirt.

"Right. Okay, so you'll be around, right?" I checked, hoping he'd be since I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing.

"U-uh...well, normally, no. But sometimes I am just to make sure everything's in order, and sometimes the boss calls me in for an extra shift. T-today I'll be here, though." He didn't seem so happy about that. And who the heck could blame him? The place was scattered with kids running rampant, all trying to touch the animatronics and leaving trash everywhere. Now it was my job to clean up after them and make sure they didn't touch the animatronics. Great.

"Okay." I didn't know what else to say. "So...I'll get to my shift?"

He simply nodded. As I turned, a girl who worked here was watching me quite skeptically with eagle eyes. It was kinda creepy, to be honest. What was up with her?

"Maybe she just doesn't like other female employees…" I guessed to myself.

I straightened out my purple polo and got to work, trying to figure out how to efficiently watch all the little brats running rampant. There really was no way except to work my ass off. By the time it was my break I didn't even realize it because the whole job in itself was such a distraction. I decided for my break to just take a seat near the trash can and chill out for a second from all the stress.

" _Geez_ …" I gave a large sigh, trying to calm down.

It wasn't until a moment after that I heard a laugh to the left of me. A tiny giggle was emitted from a caramel-skinned woman with hot pink lipstick on. Her general attitude seemed to be careless and she smacked her gum wildly.

"You need to calm down, girly." She smiled at me, speaking in an enchantingly thick hispanic accent. She leaned against the trashcan chewing her gum while smoking a cigarette.

"Nobody here works that hard." She laughed. "Except for Scott, but he kisses the bosses ass; and maybe Addie, too. But _she_ kisses _Scott's_ ass." She laughed even harder.

I laughed a little too, assuming the manager who must've been so close to the boss was Scott. "My names Mabel." I smiled.

"Carmen." She responded. "So you need some quick pointers on this place, huh?"

"Yeah. So who used to work my shift? It seems everyone around here knows each other well." I pointed out how connected the employees were. Carmen was clearly one of the people who worked in the kitchen.

"All kinds of people work your shift. The boss just decided we needed another girl, I guess." She joked, smirking.

"There aren't a lot of girls working here?" I wondered why she made such a comment.

Carmen smiled, seemingly getting excited as we delved into conversation about her fellow employees. "Well you've met me, now. And I guess you haven't really met Addie yet. God only knows where that girl is today. Then there's you and that's about it."

"Addie? Is she the girl who was looking at me when I was talking to Scott?" I asked. Man the girls who worked here were weird as heck.

"Really? She was?" Carmen seemed to get a kick out of this. She laughed full-heartedly now. "That's hilarious, girly."

I wondered why it was so funny. I decided it might be best to just change subjects or something.

"So there's really only three girls here?" I included myself.

Carmen nodded, calming herself from having a laughing fit about Addie. "Well...and then there's _Cynthia_."

I looked at her confusedly. "Who's that? What's up with her?"

"You want my advice girly? She's like Addie but creepier. Just stay on her good side. And by on her good side I mean stay away from her and her _loco_ boyfriend, Vince." She rolled her eyes.

"So she works here, too?" I asked, wondering just who this was.

"No, she's just the girlfriend of an employee here. They're both weirdos. Probably with a criminal record." Carmen stated. "Anyways, girly, you should get some pizza before boss or Scott make you get back to work." She nicely suggested and showed me to the place where I was allowed to go.

After I picked up some pizza I returned to Carmen because I didn't feel like leaving her since I knew no one else.

"Oh, Mabel just in time." Carmen grinned evilly as I walked up, clearly being mischievous to the girl she was talking to. I noticed the girl infront of her to be the one who gave me the strange look earlier.

Unlike Carmen's somewhat ratty, but pretty, dark black hair held in a loose bun, the girl had a short hair cut that gradually got longer the closer it got to her face. She had light brown hair that was perfectly brushed and kempt which was totally unlike half the employees in this place. She wasn't super pretty or anything and she only wore a little makeup if any, but she looked cute in that goody-two-shoes kind of way. On one side of her head, I saw a clip holding one part of her hair back in a cutesy way. I could've sworn it was a butterfly clip for a moment but I realized that was ridiculous for a girl her age, even if this was a kid's place.

"Hi, I'm Adeline." She smiled somewhat fakely.

 _Dang she must be trying hard. Most people here don't give a care. Why's she being all formal?_

"Ah quit the stupid act, Addie." Carmen snorted at her, spitting her gum out into the trash. Adeline's face went from a sweet smile to an angry glare in less than a second as she turned to Carmen who just seemed to ignore the glare.

Adeline sighed; "You can call me Addie," she said, now in a normal tone.

"What's your name?"

"Mabel." I responded, smiling so she wouldn't get the wrong idea about me.

"Mabel, don't listen to Carmen. She's crazy. And a gossiper." She said to me. Carmen just rolled her eyes at this. "I can be your friend here, if you want." She offered, proudly grinning.

 _What the heck is this? A kindergarten?_

"S-sure!" I smiled, still attempting to be likeable.

"Oh my God, Addie you really _do_ need a hobbie." Carmen laughed once more as she listened in on our _conversation_. If you could

even call it that.

"Shut _up_ , Carmen. I _do_ have hobbies. And things to do. You of all people should know that, since I actually _work_ at my job." Addie flipped her hair almost like a snob.

"Um, first of all sweetheart, you work at a kid's restaurant. So let's not _talk ourselves up_ here. Secondly," Carmen continued, getting an out-of-control smirk on her face, "I think you and I both know that the only _hobby_ you have here is staring at Scott all day."

Addie's face turned into an embarrassed- or maybe _angry_ mess of red as she turned entirely to Carmen with a look of outrage.

"For the last _fucking_ time Carmen I do _not_ have a thing for Scott, Jesus!" She yelled, still somehow not gathering the attention of any of the kids running rampant.

"Uh oh~… _Cursing in the workplace_. Maybe I should go get _Scott_ and ask about that…" Carmen teased in a sing-song voice.

" _UGH…_ " Addie swiped back around and gave out an exasperated sigh.

"See? Point proven. She's crazy." Addie said. I just shrugged.

 _Was_ she into the manager/trainer of the place?

I wasn't sure. But it wasn't really my business, so I just decided to stay out of it.

"Um, I should get back to my shift…"I half smiled.

"Oh. Right. Of course. Sorry." Addie half laughed. "Uh, I'll see you later?" She smiled.

 _Does she like me now?_

"Ew don't hang with her, Mabel. Addie gets clingy." Carmen joked. I just laughed and told Addie I'd see her later.

By the end of the day I was totally ready to go home. All the employees gathered in their strange cliques after cleaning up from closing and then left for their homes. It was strange, but it seemed that Adeline and Carmen actually hung out as friends. I supposed that they were just the kind of friends who teased each other. Besides, Addie seemed like the kinda girl who would never admit to being sappy, anyway, and Carmen seemed like nothing but a joker.

I decided I'd talk to them to make some good friends so work wasn't entirely hell on earth.

"Hey, guys." I greeted in the middle of their conversation.

"Oh! Hey, girly." Carmen gave a wide grin and half of a wave.

"Hey." Addie smiled at me.

"Oh, Mabel, you should totally go with us this weekend for lunch." Carmen smiled nodding.

"Yeah it'd be nice to have someone else." Addie agreed.

"Okay! Where do you guys go?" I asked, hoping to make some new friends outside of college for once.

"We usually just eat at the food court in the mall." Carmen told me, "Just be there at like eleven thirty or so."

I nodded "Okay sounds good." I smiled; "So I'll see you guys later?" I asked.

Addie nodded.

That's when Scott walked nearby as he was making sure everything was in order.

"Hey, Scott." Carmen said very casually. I thought there'd be a negative response in return but instead there was just a rushed smile and a wave.

 _He must_ _let_ _most of the employees goof off even though he works hard?_

He seemed to be kind of shaky. He normally was a little awkward and dorky, but now it seemed he was just plain nervous. I was glad I wasn't the only one getting that vibe since I looked over to Addie and she seemed to look concerned, too.

"Er… Aren't you gonna go home soon?" I asked him, since he seemed to look like he wasn't leaving anytime soon even though it was… I looked at my wrist watch... _ten o' clock!_

"Uh...n-no. I have the night shift tonight since Vincent couldn't come in today…" He answered, mumbling angrily after mentioning Vincent not coming to work.

 _A night shift?! Why the hell is there a night shift at a children's restaurant?_

I decided not to ask. Maybe there was just something the boss didn't like about leaving the place unwatched at night? Yeah. Sure.

"Oh. Okay. Where's Vincent at?" Addie asked, still looking a little concerned.

"I dunno…" Scott suddenly seemed more chill as he spoke to us and changed to a more casual tone. "He called in for something dumb but I'm pretty sure he's just skipping out again."

"You're gonna let him off the hook with that?" Addie narrowed her stare angrily.

"It's hard to find people who want to work the night shift here. Plus Vincent has to provide for Cynthia...I-I just can't fire him." Scott sighed, explaining to Addie in a sympathetic tone, despite the fact that he was perturbed with Vincent or whoever it was.

Addie just blushed in response to this and began to stutter a little. "S-so? _Everyone_ here has to provide for _someone._ "

"Except _you._ " Carmen laughed at Addie. Scott looked embarrassed as he turned to Carmen in a 'you forgot me, too' way. "Oh, _and_ you, too. Heh. Sorry. Not that there's anything _wrong_ with being alone…" Carmen continued on, looking awkward as hell.

"Just stop digging yourself into a deeper hole." Addie shook her head and scoffed. Scott just laughed at this and Addie smiled, thinking it was alright for her to laugh too. And me? I just fell awkwardly into the silent hole between everyone.

"Uhh, anyways… I'll see you ladies later." Scott waved bye to us and we all nodded, leaving for our cars out in the parking lot.


	2. A Change In Schedule

_Author's Note:_ Hello~! So sorry it took me a while to post this chapter. I've actually had it done for quite a few days but didn't have the chance to read over it and make sure it was done. I've recently gone on vacation and right now i'm in a cabin in North Carolina, which is super nice. But I should have plenty of time to do some writing soon. I've already began on the next chapter. Thanks for taking interest enough to read! The next chapter will be posted within the next 2 days since I don't have packing/planning to do. Thanks for taking interest so far in reading my first published story!

-cw

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

 **A Change in Schedule**

As I stepped outside, the stars twinkled from the clear Utah sky. Few street lights could be seen other than the one or two that only glowed a dim orange due to age and wear. I scuffled to my car and unlocked its deep red door to get in the driver's seat. Sitting down, I gave a sigh and calmed myself down.

"See, Mabel? It wasn't so hard. Everything's done now and you only have a partial shift tomorrow, too." I spoke to myself.

I pulled down the mirror and took a peek at my complexion. I looked a little tired, but not too bad. If anything, I was far more stressed about that essay I have to write this weekend than this job.

I drove home slowly on the quiet streets, listening to some radio in the car. At least, whatever radio they had available in this crappy town. It wasn't near my school's campus where I stayed at my dorm with my roommate Sofie, but it wasn't _too_ far since it was only a suburb of the college town my campus was in.

It was kinda in the middle of nowhere. Which was weird- but cheap rent for my new boss, I guess. Yet tons of kids came all the time, especially for birthdays. I suppose it was a kind of _tradition_ of the small suburb to bring their kids to it. Besides, it was located where all the families were.

I finally found myself on more familiar roads where buildings could actually be seen and the streetlights lit up the world around me so that the clear sky couldn't be seen so much now.

I rolled up into the cramped parking lot of my dorm house and found any space I could.

I silently paced towards my dorm, worried thinking about all the statistics that had been spat to me about the number of crimes that took place at night in college parking lots. I shook my mind away from those thoughts and found myself shrouded by the lights of my college dorm. I found my dorm room to be open as usual and filled with plenty of Sofie's slightly eccentric study friends; all so obsessed with their grades.

"Hey!" Sofie waved to me and some of her friends turned around to give me a wave and a smile as well.

"So- how was the first day?" She grinned widely at me. I tried to awaken my happiness so that I didn't look upset or anything.

"It was fine. Met some new people. It's a little tiresome, though- making sure those kids aren't getting into trouble." I nodded.

One of Sofie's study buddies with ginger-red hair turned to nod with me; "Oh, yeah I used to work at a daycare in high school. It was _so_ draining. Kids can be tough."

"Yeah. I'm not looking forward to when they're gonna throw birthday parties...just thinking about that makes me want to hibernate and save my energy _now_." I joked, being half-serious. The girl made a face now.

"Oh- where do you work?" She asked, clearly expecting me to have been working at a daycare, too or something.

"Ah...nowhere, just this weird kid's restaurant over in the suburb west of us."

"Ohh.. _that town_?" One of Sofie's gay friends turned, making a cringe face.

 _Yeah. I got it. It isn't the super hipster side of town_ _you_ _idiots hang out in._ I thought to myself, hating the faces all of them made at me.

"It was the only job I could find that would let me work a bit later so I could just do my homework after classes instead of after classes _and_ work." I stated, trying to retain my reputation with reasoning.

Most of them just nodded and made sounds of understanding.

"Well you should get some sleep." Sofie said, "We'll try to keep quiet." She added and I simply nodded, knowing it didn't really matter if there was a freaking metal band playing in the room right now because I was so tired.

"Night, guys." I got out as I slammed down onto the bed and fell asleep quickly.

I got to the mall just on time and found Carmen and Adeline sitting together rolling their eyes at each other and laughing. As I sat, they greeted me and we all grabbed some Chinese food from the food court.

"So you guys all have the later shift, too, on Saturdays and Sundays?" I asked.

Carmen nodded and so did Addie.

"Yep. The boss likes to hire teenagers for the earlier shift on the weekends because they're cheaper." Addie explained and Carmen just rolled her eyes and muttered; "As if he was paying us any better…"

"Are you guys just paying off college, too?" I wondered to myself but spoke aloud since I felt comfortable with them now. They seemed a little older than me…but not too old.

Addie and Carmen just laughed for a while at my question.

"I have kids and a husband." Carmen smirked, eating her Kung Pao chicken.

"And you?" I looked to Addie who was just sipping on a drink, looking as if she was hoping I wouldn't ask.

"She has no life, honey." Carmen told me. Addie just glared but gave a sigh.

Today the girls looked much nicer. I supposed they actually cared now. Addie had on a whole _bunch_ of makeup and Carmen brushed her hair and kept it down so it shined under the bright white lights of the mall.

"I do _too_ have a life." Addie grumbled.

"How'd you end up working at a kid's pizza place?" I asked, not trying to offend.

"Eye candy." Carmen teased, making Addie groan angrily. I had a look of confusion on my face until I realized she was talking about our awkward manager that Carmen liked to joke Addie was into.

"After high school I didn't really have a college in mind or a career that my parents wanted to pay for so I ended up just working full time at the place." She shrugged, looking a little bothered by it.

"She _means_ to say that she gave up on career prospects out of laziness and social incompatibility with ninety percent of the population due to her bitchiness." Carmen grinned, making sarcastically sweet faces at Addie.

Addie gave a huff; "Ha. Ha. Very funny." she laughed at Carmen's joke.

I glanced around the mall. It's bright lighting made all the white tile shine, and the black and silver tables and chairs clashed heavily against it. The ceiling went high up, as if it was attempting to be a dome, but gave up halfway to give an incredibly pointless sky light that needed to be cleaned. I tried to imagine the guy who had to get on a lift or whatever to clean the giant thing of glass and felt nauseous just thinking about it.

"You guys hang out here often?" I said unconsciously.

Carmen raised an eyebrow; "That pick up line is _so_ old." she joked. I laughed but tried to get serious again.

"I just meant at this mall. Like do you guys do anything else?"

Carmen just glared at Adeline. "Well I _try_ to go to parties, but this one is scared of them." she whined.

Addie got into that flustered phase she usually got into whenever she went into defensive mode. " _I let you take us to a party_ if you didn't remember that…" she grumbled, reminiscing upon something that clearly was anything but a fond memory.

"Ugh! That was the party that _Cynthia_ invited us to. I knew that thing was going to be _de miedo_ anyways." Carmen winced, looking disturbed just remembering it herself.

"Well I suppose Cynthia and Vincent are anything but charming socialites." Addie sighed, giving in a little.

"What happened?" I asked, wondering what the heck this was all about.

Carmen switched to a face of regularness when she saw I looked almost concerned. "Nothing _happened_. It was just a crazy party overall. Not something pretty girls like us should go to."

I silently wondered why Carmen was going to parties if she was a wife, but ignored the thought since I decided it wasn't really my business.

"What do you mean?"

"Drugs. Creepy people. Alcohol."

I giggled a little; " _Alcohol? Seriously?_ How's _that_ 'trashy'?" I poked fun at this all the way. After all, I was a college kid. If anyone knew what real parties were, it was me. And alcohol was almost always involved in a good one.

"There's alcohol, and then there's _alcohol_." Carmen said, giving facial expressions.

"What?"

"We mean alcohol in the unattractive, drunk-off-your-ass, unhealthy alcoholism _way_ , sweety." Addie explained. I just sat and thought about it for a second and recognized the kind of party they were talking about.

"Hold up, did you guy's friend take you to one of those creep-o parties with junkies and shit?" I cringed a little just _thinking_ of all the perverts at that kind of party.

Carmen simply nodded. Addie just sort of shrugged in a 'I-don't-know-what-else-to-say' kind of way.

"That's Cynthia for you." Carmen sighed.

I now wondered who this girl was. She seemed to be part of the employee loop, but in a strange way. I still wasn't able to make out whether Carmen and Addie liked her or were disgusted by her.

I tried to think if I saw her, and decided to mention it. "I don't think I ever saw Cynthia around yesterday."

"Well Scott said Vince didn't show up for his shift, and he wasn't there for the day shift yesterday either. So there's no reason for her to be there." Carmen told me.

Oh. I'd forgotten she only showed up for her boyfriend.

"That really pisses me off...that Vincent just takes time off like that and doesn't even think twice." Addie grumbled, showing how surrounded she was by her job.

"Chill, Addie." Carmen shook her head Addie's direction. "If you want to take time off, I bet you could get away with taking a damn month off." she laughed.

"Right. _I could_. But that doesn't make it okay. It affects other people's shifts, and if I just randomly skip out on a day with barely any notice then someone has to take an _extra_ shift like Scott did last night. Which is super wrong." Addie crossed her arms, going off on her extra morally-invoked rant.

"Why didn't he just ask one of us to take the shift last night?" I asked, feeling weird about the whole ordeal.

"Because Scott always takes the shifts if someone doesn't show up. I think he says he does it to 'maintain the employee's relationships' or something stupid like that because he doesn't want us getting pissed having another shift and getting angry at the guy who skipped out on work." Carmen looked like she was trying to remember why he did it, but didn't care enough to remember properly.

Addie added on; "But there should be _repercussions_ for skipping out. Maybe having certain employees hating you would _help_." she sighed, looking frustrated with the whole thing.

" _Uh ohhh_ someone looks angry…" Carmen poked fun at Addie's whole frustrated stance. "Maybe you should take your complaints to Scott…" she pushed, clearly wanting to see what would happen.

" _I'm_ not the manager. It's not _my_ decision. So I stay out of it." Addie sighed again; "Besides it only affects _him_ badly, so that's _his_ choice to let employees _step all over him_ like that." she sounded irritated in the wierdest way. I wasn't sure if she was irritated by our manager, or the people 'stepping all over him'.

"Sounds like a _personal problem_." Carmen snorted, rudely teasing her.

"No it isn't I just hate disorganization!" Addie blew up, hissing once more in her defensive stance.

"Which would be...wow would you look at that... _a personal problem_." Carmen smirked evilly, just waiting for Addie to get even more defensive.

Addie was just about to blow up once more when her pager went off.

"Who is it?" Carmen genuinely asked.

"Yeah who's paging you if you have 'no social life'?" I wondered aloud, remembering what they'd both told me about Addie's social life just minutes ago.

"It's Scott." Addie said making a confused face. "I guess I'll be right back…" Addie walked off to get to a phone, leaving Carmen and I to talk.

"Ayayay...what do you think _that's_ about?" Carmen looked to me.

"No idea." Thoughts were rushing through my head about what Addie and Carmen had told me. I wondered earlier…but I knew Addie would be too loyal and uptight to tell me…

But now just Carmen was here and I could ask.

"So Carmen…" I said, slightly under my breath for some strange reason; "Why the heck is there a _night shift_ at a kid's place?"

"I have no idea, girly. You're gonna have to ask Addie about that." Carmen shrugged, clearly having no clue, either.

"Has Addie had the night shift?"

"No...but she talks to Scott, so she might know details. The funny thing is she's offered to do it but he won't let her." Carmen pieced together as I asked her.

"Really? Why wouldn't he let her?" Things just got weirder.

"Yeah it's real weird but he says only Vince or him will do the shift and that he can't find anyone else to do it, yet Addie has offered _several times_. I don't see what's so difficult about a stupid _night_ shift." Carmen shook her head, not looking as interested as I was.

"Maybe the night shift isn't unpopular...maybe he only gives it to Vince and himself because it's easy and he just doesn't like Addie." I theorized about the whole thing.

"Doubtful. He and Vince ain't friends or anything. I mean, for one they're _total_ opposites in personality. And for another; Scott doesn't hate Addie. Addie is the only one at the restaurant who does things the way Scott asks us to. She totally kisses his ass." Carmen rolled her eyes just thinking about it. I contemplated for a moment and decided it was valid enough to eliminate the idea that it was a desirable shift.

"Maybe he just doesn't want to make Addie stay up extra late?" I suggested, not being able to think of much.

"That's probably it. Everyone who knows Addie knows she just _loves_ what she _calls_ her 'beauty sleep'." Carmen snickered, sifting through her chinese food with a fork.

"Yeah…" I faintly smiled, trying to shake the weirdness of the whole issue off.

Carmen and I sat together in a somewhat awkward silence as we ate our chinese.

"Uh...Hello?"

"Hey. What's up?"

"Yeah…do you remember where the-? N-nevermind, I found it…"

"You sound really tired...are you…? Did boss make you take the shift the next morning _too_?!"

"Uhm...sorta, yeah. Because I covered Vincent's shift last night."

"Are you serious? I'm coming in _right now_. I'm taking over your shift."

"N-no, wait don't do that...you'll get in trouble with boss...so-"

"I don't care. I'm coming, anyways."

She hung up the phone.

As Carmen and I continued on to lighter talk about celebrities and joked about recent news, a rushed looking Adeline back walked over to the table.

"You okay?" I asked her as she rushed for her things. It was almost as if Carmen and I were totally separate from the world her mind was in, now.

"Oh; yeah...sorry, Scott called and you won't believe it…" She shook her head.

"What?" Carmen asked, looking just as concerned as I.

"Scott literally still hasn't left work. Boss was pissed that he covered Vincent's shift, so I'm gonna go take over his shift now." Addie spoke, shaking her head in anger. I wasn't sure who she was angry at, though, in this scenario.

"No way, Addie! That isn't your job to cover for him if it wasn't _his_ job to cover for Vince!" Carmen yelled at her.

"I don't give a care. That was a jerk move for boss to give him a shift like that just for being a nice person. I'm gonna cover him- besides, he's _tired_. So _someone_ has to work the place to make sure everything's okay." Addie groaned. I could tell she didn't want to do the job, but she felt the duty to do so.

"Okay well...I'll go to work early, then, to confuse the boss a little so you won't get caught." I offered, wanting to help and not feel useless in this situation.

"And I'm gonna do the same if you're going to be this stupid." Carmen stated, rather than offering, because she was being her bossy self.

Addie gave a sigh and gave in quickly; "Fine. Thanks, guys." She grabbed her purse. "Alright let's go."

As we all arrived to the dreaded place we worked at, Carmen gave a groan.

"I can't believe we're doing this…" She grumbled. "And all just to help Addie kiss ass…"

We strolled towards the restaurant which was filled with kiddies this time of day.

Adeline rolled her eyes; "You know, you didn't _have_ to come." She pointed out.

"You _do_ realize _boss_ is the one who gives us raises, not Scott…" Carmen attempted to change Addie's perspective.

I just sat by as the two half-argued, half-complained.

"I don't care. If Scott is working the place tired some crazy accident will happen and then there'll _be_ no job to get a raise from." Addie hissed, determinedly.

Carmen simply shook her head at Addie's type A personality.

"Just think!" Carmen switched to her witty comments; "An accident will happen, Scott can get fired, and we can get a more laid back manager." She entertained.

Addie just gave a huff of resentment as she opened the door for us. "Scott isn't a _bad_ manager...he's a nice guy- just look at what he did for _stupid Vincent_."

When Addie finished the sentence and walked in, a tall guy had been listening in on our conversation. He was lanky and tall to the point where he leaned over, sort of lazily. His hair was dark black and went almost to his shoulders as far as I could tell, but he had it pulled back in a messy way to match his scraggly chin hair. And his eyes gave off a silvery-gray glow that most would consider charming. But this guy seemed sleezy. And by that, I mean he didn't feel _right_. He felt kinda creepy.

" _Yeah_ that _stupid_ Vincent should _really_ be thanking your dorky little _boy toy_ for all the great deeds he's done for him." The tall man hissed, taunting, grinning, and speaking in a tone that brought shivers down my spine.

 _Ew what a creep-o._ I thought to myself.

He _had_ to be an alcoholic. Or a massive smoker. Or a druggy. Or probably all of them.

I saw Addie practically cringe at the guy.

"Oh _hello_ , Vincent." She groaned, looking slightly embarrassed that he listened in on what she said about their manager and him.

"Any reason you're listening in on my conversations?" Her eyes nailed onto him like a crucifixion was taking place.

"Any reason you're here so _early_?" He grinned back at her hateful stare in a teasing way.

"Not your problem. And Scott is not my _boyfriend_...or whatever the hell you called him." Addie hissed, sounding disgusted.

Vincent got a laugh out of this. "I said _boy toy_. Which is a totally different thing. And a hundred percent your relationship with him." He snickered.

"Whatever, Vincent. I don't even know what that _means_." She sighed, walking away from the laughing tall figure. I followed her and Carmen just went ahead at took place at her post.

"I have to go find Scott." Addie sighed to me, "Sorry you had to see me talk to Vincent that way." She apologized to me, being the goody, courteous girl she always was.

"Huh?" I felt spaced out, "Oh, no problem! He seems, uhm…" I didn't know how to say it without getting in trouble if he'd heard me. Which I really didn't want happening. The guy seriously gave me the creeps.

" _Yeah, I know_." Addie nodded, laughing a little and responding with a face that could never agree more.

I walked alongside Addie as she found a half asleep Scott surveillancing the kids from a corner in the back of the dining area.

He seemed awake at times, but at others…

" _Psst_ _Scott…_ " Addie poked his arm, which leaned against the wall along with his the rest of his half-asleep body.

"AH!" Scott practically shrieked, looking startled as he awoke to see Addie staring at him, and I giggling at the scene from slightly afar. I especially enjoyed the fact that, in turn, Adeline seemed just as startled because Scott yelled so loud.

"Oh..is my shift over?" He asked, sounding barely sentient.

"Ummm...I'm afraid not." Addie bit her lip, being the bearer of bad news.

"... _what?_ " Scott whimpered, sounding like he was about to cry.

" _Shh_ I'm taking over your shift; but boss can't know." Addie whispered.

"Huh? W-why?" Scott looked blinded from the restaurant lights.

" _Shh._ " Addie shushed him and grabbed his arm. She dragged him down a hall and I followed closely, wanting to see where the mysterious hall labeled as "EMPLOYEES ONLY" lead.

At the end of the hall, it lead to a medium sized office which had a nice chair in it.

Addie swung Scott around and placed him in the comfy office chair.

"Not this again…" Scott whined as he started to doze off once more into the chair.

" _Scott. You're not on the night shift._ " Addie sighed, waking him once more.

 _So this must be the office where the night shift takes watch_ I thought to myself.

"Huh?" He awoke again, squinting from the light.

"You're taking a nap. No shift. No work. Just napping." Addie told him.

"W-wait...but, uh...what if boss catches…?" Scott couldn't seem to come up with the words to finish the sentence because he was so tired.

"Relax. I'll tell him it was _my_ plan. I'll take the fall, okay?" Addie nodded and smiled as if she was talking to a child.

"You _do_ realize boss gives the raises and not me, right?" Scott said to Addie, looking confused as to why she was helping him.

Addie's face flushed red; "I'm not an _idiot_ I already told Carmen I know that! I'm not doing this for a raise…" She crossed her arms angrily.

"Then…?" Scott finally opened his eyes up now in sudden interest and wonder of what motivated Addie, though his eyes weren't _fully_ opened because of the bags under them.

"It's not 'cause I'm trying to make friends or anything! It's just wrong to leave the restaurant unattended." Addie blushed, groaning and refusing to face anyone.

I sat aside, watching and being entertained.

 _Man it was totally worth coming here to see this_ _weird_ _scene._ I laughed to myself.

Scott just continued to look at Addie for a moment or two with nothing but a blank stare.

It didn't take Addie long to notice the awkward stare from Scott's pale, tired face.

"I-is there something wrong with my face...or something…?" Addie looked to me.

I shook my head 'no'. To be honest, I had no idea why Scott was staring, either.

"Oh...it's nothing...it's just that I just noticed you're wearing a lot of makeup. That's all." Scott shrugged.

Addie blushed and took a mirror out of her purse. "Oh...I forgot to remove it…" Addie blushed, looking as if she was called out on something embarrassing.

"You did it so nicely, though." I commented, reminding the two of them I was there. "Seriously are you a makeup artist or something?" I added.

Her makeup really _was_ amazing. I wasn't sure how a girl that seemed so simple could do such a girly thing so well. I suddenly pictured Addie as one of those plain girls who read a lot of books, wrote in diaries, and listened to boring music, but did girly things in secret.

"I-it's a hobby…" Addie looked bashful in a cute kind of way and I saw that Scott noticed it, too.

Man our manager was _super_ tired. He was that sort of tired that made him seem almost _drunk_ it was so bad. I could tell now, for sure, my manager _definitely_ was crushing on my new friend. If it weren't for his insane tiredness, he probably would have been normal; but his drowsiness revealed the look on his face as an incredibly obvious passionate stare. Now I knew why everyone at work joked about Addie and him.

Scott gave a look of yearning towards Addie's cute bashful face for just a moment that made me suddenly squeal with joy on the inside at the adorable idea of them as a couple.

"Oh, really? Well you should teach me how to do my eyeshadow that well." I told her, trying to change subject so Scott wouldn't get caught staring and Addie wouldn't freak out.

"Okay...sure." Addie shrugged. "Anyways, get some rest, okay?" She turned to Scott, who nodded at her with an eager face.

As Addie and I took our places at work, I laid back on my job since Vincent was basically the guy working my position now. That was, until the guy got incredibly distracted when the doors opened to a woman who came _without_ a kid.

She had long black hair that was poofed in a goth sort of way. The dark black eyeliner contrasted against her bright red lipstick. Her short black dress hugged her body and her jean jacket added a nice touch to it. Overall, she seemed creepy, like one of those people who went to the trashy parties filled with tons of alcohol and drugs. I could tell she probably smoked.

No doubt she was the weird-o Vincent's equally weird girlfriend, Cynthia.

I watched him walk up to her, giving that scary, sleazy grin and stare that made me shiver. He took her hands and comforted her, giving a kiss on the lips and I saw her run her hand through his bunched up mass of greasy black hair.

I cringed just seeing it. He was so gross, to me. Almost _revolting_. And I couldn't pinpoint what it was that made him so gross.

I ignored it and payed more attention to the kids trying to touch Freddy and Chica after they finished playing some boring tune on stage.

Man, today was gonna be a long day.


	3. A Dark Duo

**BEFORE GOING FORWARD:** I just wanted to warn somewhere in this story that there _will_ be violence as well as drug use suggestions through out this fic. If it bothers you I am sorry, but I mean I really don't like to sugar-coat any characters and I personally believe that "Purple Guy" or "The Murderer" (which I'm pretty sure you will be able to tell who it is) is _A MESSED UP PERSON_. You can say that he's 'evil' or whatever, but I do not like to portray characters in euphemisms and I believe that someone willing or _wanting_ to murder people or children for fun, joy, whatever, would probably be somewhere along the lines of a "mentally unstable" person, at the very least.

Don't get me wrong. _That doesn't mean I won't have fun with him._ lol.

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

 **A Dark Duo**

"Dear God I hope our shifts are _never lined up together again_ …" Adeline ranted on about her previous shift last week with Vincent and how she was 'disgusted' having to see him and his-

"... _horrifying_ girlfriend!"

Addie turned to Carmen and I who sat by just taking in the usual rant from our straight-laced friend.

"I'm _telling you,_ Carmen. Just you watch. Those two will be arrested for drugs or something in _no time_!" She huffed, hands on her hips.

"Vince? Nah, he seems like a pretty cool guy." Carmen shrugged, only irking Addie further.

"Ugh!" Addie groaned; "I _know_ Vincent has been skipping out on his shifts just to _party_ with his girlfriend at those _revolting-..._ "

I spaced out once more, blanking out Addie's, now deeply involved anger.

"You know, Addie. You don't have to cover Scott _again_ this time. Just tell him to start punishing Vince." Carmen practically laughed at Addie's futile (and pointless) efforts towards earning a normal sleep schedule for Scott.

I just kinda giggled at the whole situation. For the last few weeks, i'd hung out with these two weirdos more than I had with Sofie and anyone else in my dorm combined. Addie was a total straight-laced, type-A, nagger and Carmen was a far-too-laid back, lazy, bad-habit enabler. But I had practically fallen in love with them both. They were quirky, but not in that stereotypical hipster way. They brought a certain spice to my life that I could no longer put into words any more. They were fun, and any time Addie had something to anger about, Carmen would always push _just enough_ to make her do something and then we'd be off on some new mini-adventure.

This adventure, in particular, was one of a more common sort that Carmen never meant to enable. Lately, Adeline had been getting extra angry with Vincent and his trashy girlfriend Cynthia because of his new tendency to skip out on night shifts now that he knew he'd get away with it. In all honesty, it kind of angered me, too. But if there's one thing i've learned about working at this place; it's to _never take things into your own hands_. Addie was a prime example of that.

And now here we are, walking _once more_ extra early into our shift so that Addie could cover the (most likely asleep) Scott's shift.

"Here we go again, girly." Carmen whispered under her breath to me, using the usual funny nickname for me. I think Carmen liked having a friend to endure the pain of Addie's personality with.

I nodded and returned a funny, big-eyed face to her that she smirked to as we followed behind our rageful friend.

When both Carmen and I saw how angrily Adeline was entering the restaurant, we both knew something had to be done. Otherwise, she'd enter angry and start another fight with Vincent. Or worse- she'd complain to our ill-natured boss, which I think Carmen would like to see...but I think she wants to keep her job without having Addie reel her into a deep problem at the restaurant.

I glanced to Carmen as if to say; _do something._

Carmen took action quickly, just in time as Addie reached the ugly red painted doors.

"Uh...Addie- I think you should calm down before we enter." Carmen placed her hand on Addie's shoulder to get her to stop her ranting.

"What? _I-!_ Oh." Addie calmed herself; "You're right. Sorry. Thanks." She rubbed her eyes. I noticed a heavy coat of makeup over the slightly purplish bags under her eyes.

As we walked inside our work I decided to mention something.

"H-hey, Addie?"

"Huh?" She stopped in her path and looked at me.

"Are you sure you're getting enough slee-?" I was speedily interrupted by Addie's head swishing to the voice of none-other than Scott.

Feeling as if I was barging in on their conversation, I tried to look at other things while I listened in.

I noticed suddenly that there were quite a few kids bustling around with their parents all sitting at tables, ignoring them as best as they could.

 _Wow this place is busy today…_ I realized.

There was something else different, but I was more interested in what would be Scott's awkward excuse for covering Vincent's behind despite the fact that _every time_ we did this, Addie would tell Scott to never trust in Vincent and almost go rage-mode on Vincent since Scott wouldn't.

Instead of getting my treat, I watched as Scott discreetly walked up and said under his breath;

" _There's a birthday party._ " as he put his hands on Addie's shoulders and guided her quickly out of the crowd and into the guard office. I recognized the difference I hadn't noticed to be numerous party streamers and banners stating 'Happy Birthday!' all over the place.

I followed along since Scott eyed me in a way that said I should go with them, too.

As we entered the office all alone, the first thing said was Addie shouting like a scornful mother. It was the hilarity I was hoping for.

" _How are you even_ _awake_?!" I could tell Addie was trying her hardest not to enter into a fit of rage. Carmen tiptoed into the office as well.

"Ayayaye, Addie you didn't tell me there was a party today…" She sighed.

Addie ignored Carmen's complaints entirely to listen to what would now be Scott's excuses.

" _A lot_ of coffee." Scott sighed, looking strained and stressed as hell. I felt bad for the guy. He seemed just as jittery as Addie. Were they _both_ hopped up on coffee?

 _His pay might be better but I sure as hell don't think it's worth it. Why is Addie trying to get his position?_ I wondered to myself.

"This is _ridiculous_!" Adeline screamed. An explosion queued.

"Uh oh. Here it comes." Carmen practically spoke my mind.

" _Call him up and make him take your shift!"_ Addie ordered like a super angry mom.

"Uh...well, Vince is, um...he's working the other shift right now." Scott blushed, almost looking ashamed of himself as he awaited Adeline's next explosion.

"You mean to tell me…"

Addie tried to calm herself.

"He _knew_ there'd be a birthday party…"

She huffed inwards.

"And he _let you_ take _all three shifts before it_?"

Addie looked absolutely flustered with rage.

"Y-yeah...but, ahhh… Vincent said he had to take Cynthia…" Scott trailed off, almost as if to admit his defeat, knowing that Adeline would still be angry. He scratched his head of short mousy brown hair and tilted his head in a cute way, adjusting his black-rimmed glasses.

"Vincent is just partying…" Addie sighed, seemingly giving in as well because she noticed his bashfulness as a sign of defeat and realized how crazy she was being.

 _Why the hell are you embarrassing your manager, Addie?_ I asked her in my mind, shaking my head.

"But...you...um…" Addie, for once, seemed at a loss for words. Man this was getting good.

She blushed pink.

"Look, Addie. You don't have to keep covering for me, ok? I got it. It's _my responsibility_ as the manager." Scott insisted in a really nice way. "Please don't worry about it." He smiled.

" _Okay_ , I get it...but…" Addie had something she wanted to say, I could tell.

"Scott…?" She looked to him with a pale face. "Why won't you just let _me_ take the night shift?"

Scott's face went red in a weird way. Carmen began to chew her gum faster. She knew this was getting good.

"I just...uhhhh…" Scott scratched his head more.

"I _mean_ … I just hired you for morning shifts, remember?" Scott recovered, a blush still remaining on his face.

 _Nice recovery, Scott._ I thought to myself. _But even_ _I_ _saw that that was a recovery_.

What was he keeping her away from? I wondered to myself.

I'd been wondering about the night shift for a while now, but I realized that Addie and Carmen didn't seem to know much or even _want_ to know much. But now...I could see the yearning interest in Addie's eyes as they twinkled in wonder at what Scott was keeping her from.

"Y-yeah. Okay...then…" Addie just mumbled on. She seemed to recognize, just as much as I, that an answer wasn't going to come from Scott.

"I'm serious, Addie. Don't freak out about it. It's _my job_." Scott tried to nicely comfort her so she wasn't on his back about it.

" _No it's not… It's_ _Vincent's_ _job._ " She hissed, arms crossed.

Scott just ignored it.

"Addie…" Carmen sighed, shaking her head disapprovingly.

" _What?!_ That prick can't just keep skipping out on his night shift." Addie grunted.

"Addie you look just as tired as Scott. You two _idiotas_ need a hobby _other than your jobs_." Carmen put harshly.

" _I can hear everything you're saying, you know._ " Scott sighed, looking slightly offended that his own underling employees would have the nerve to say it to his face.

"Addie has a hobby. She does makeup." I smiled, remembering what she told me a few weeks ago. Addie just blushed. "And also she hates Cynthia as a hobby." I joked. Carmen found it just as funny as I did.

"Cynthia…" Scott just said to himself, suddenly looking like he was thinking hard.

We looked at him confusedly.

"Yeah…? What about her?" Carmen was the first to speak up, as usual.

"There was something...oh. Uh oh." Scott remembered whatever he was trying to remember.

"What?" I felt worried now.

"Uhhh...I forgot that Cynthia is here today. Which means Vincent is probably distracted." Scott stated.

"And…?" I didn't see what the big deal was.

"Which means nobody's watching the restaurant right now and there's a birthday party." Scott rushed out of the room.

"Hey wait! I'm helping out!" Addie insisted, running after him.

"I'm just gonna sit around the kitchen and see if boss counts that as hours for me." Carmen snorted. I shrugged and slowly walked in to help watch over the kids as Addie and Scott organized everything and made sure everything was going as planned for the party.

I began to organize kids and make sure everything was okay as I watched Cynthia and Vincent talking about something. They seemed up to something nefarious, but then again they always did.

Time practically slowed as I saw Vincent whispering in his girlfriend's ear, his lips curling in an evil sneer. Cynthia's eyes redirected to me snooping in on them and her icy blue stare hit me hard. She whipped out her cigarette and gave me an evil gaze as Vincent's lips retreated and his grin transformed into a wondering look. He looked to me as well, because he saw Cynthia doing so. My face became a deep red. I was incredibly embarrassed- but, more than that, I was scared. I could see their dark gaze take meaning as Vincent's eyes glinted in my direction.

 _What the heck were they talking about?_

Whatever it was, I didn't care enough to put my life on the line.

Okay, I know that sounds crazy. How could a guy who works at a freaking children's restaurant threaten me that much? I haven't even really talked to him. But the way they grinned and spoke to each other…it gave me the chills.

I just tried to ignore the stare as best as I could and moved on to helping some kid who was crying.

"Hey what's wrong, buddy?" I knelt down to the chubby-cheeked kid in blue jeans.

But there was no escaping the stare. My momentary nightmare was turning to an _awkward_ momentary nightmare. And it was becoming less momentary by the minute when suddenly Vincent knelt down, too and took matters into his own hands.

He gave that sleazy scary smile that made me cringe and suddenly I found myself feeling even _more_ concerned for the chubby-cheeked kid.

"Hey, kiddo, it's all gonna be okay." He promised, smiling that dark smile.

Vincent gave me a glance afterwards that made my heart stop for a second.

 _What the hell?!_

I couldn't move.

The kid stopped crying and nodded, as if to say he was tough enough to stop now. That's when Vincent gave him a pat on the back and walked away in his lazy stride, his back slightly hunched like a tired person or some skater guy.

I had to go for a bit.

I left to take a bathroom break. As I strode across the restaurant, weaving through tons of children, I found myself at the ladies restroom. I slammed open the purple and silver door and went straight for the sink. I turned on the water and splashed it on my face, looking up into the mirror. Things felt a bit surreal for some reason.

"You got this, Mae." I spoke to the reflection.

"Just don't freak. It's nothing new. Addie _said_ he was a creep normally." I nodded to myself and finally let go of the weirdness.

I awkwardly left the bathroom, still feeling uncomfortable and a little irked, but I got over it. Until that all ended in a matter of seconds as I passed by the trashcan. A voice resonated from behind me;

"You're pretty~" the voice sang in a wicked way.

I spun around quickly to see Cynthia's long black hair and insane-asylum-esque face.

"So what's up? You the new girl I hear about?" She looked at me expectantly as if I was gonna respond with a damn monologue. No handshake. No smile. Just a stressful face full of expectations to stare at.

She expected answers from me. And I was her hostage. In plain freaking public sight.

"Uhm...I-I'm Mabel." I tried to smile, but my lip trembled a bit.

"Hey Mabel. So...you're an _observer_ I take it?" She asked me.

 _Oh no_. _Awkwarrrd._

"Uhm...sorry...about that…" I didn't know what to say.

 _No dumbass you should have just denied it!_ I thought to myself.

She gave a cackle that made me feel a lot more comfortable.

"It's okay, sweetie. I was just joking. You remind me of my sis." She sighed, taking a sip of her coke. "All _uptight_ n' shit."

She sat and observed me for a moment.

"You want a tip? Don't _observe_ around here." She grinned. "It only gets worse from there."

She began to walk away and turned just before she was too far; "Or wherever the hell you are now."

As soon as she was far enough, I felt an urge to talk to myself if not someone else.

"That. Was. Weird." I whispered.


	4. A Panicky Pair

**Chapter 4**

 **A Panicky Pair**

I said it from the very first day. I _knew_ a party at this place was gonna be horrible. And that wasn't even accounting for crazy guy Vincent and his insane ass girlfriend. If that wasn't enough- just _watching_ Addie race around to organize things alongside Scott was giving me a heart attack.

Addie was doing jobs that weren't even _hers_ once the people in the kitchen picked up that she'd basically do their jobs.

All of the sudden, I was watching her take a freaking birthday cake out of the kitchen and place the giant thing on the table.

 _What the hell is Scott even managing if Addie is doing all the jobs right now?_

That's when I noticed that Scott wasn't managing anything because he was _also_ doing multiple jobs. When I stopped freaking out about it, I stepped back and watched them and it made me laugh a little. They were _all over the place_. It was hilarious. Running back-and-forth across the restaurant, making sure everything was in order while reassuring the parents that everything was fine. I began to recognize the way Addie and Scott worked together. _They were a team_. _And a crazy one, at that._

Every time I noticed something about the two, it always made me laugh since it was usually something that made me understand Carmen's jokes about Addie and Scott being together even more.

 _They would be a cute couple, even though they're both far too preoccupied with their deadbeat jobs to date,_ I guessed. _But then again…_ I thought, _I think Scott_ _did_ _lay down something about 'no "overbearing" relationships outside the restaurant with the other employees'... Or something else stupid he was forced to tell us._

In fact, now that I think about it- Scott was forced to tell us _a lot of stuff_ , it seemed. At least, he told us he was forced to. Or otherwise he said it in a way that _sounded like_ he was forced to. They were all dumb nit-picky notices and new rules that left you wondering what the heck caused such a thing to be created in the first place.

I only assumed it was simply the burden of working such a horrendous job. But maybe _other_ restaurants _didn't_ have such strange rules?

Whatever. I didn't have time to think about all of this, any ways.

Just as I returned to focusing on my job, a loud huff was given nearby and soon I was watching a total cat fight breakout.

It was Addie, glaring angrily at Cynthia who had previously been distracting the nowhere-to-be-found Vincent, while Addie worked all the jobs except mine and whatever Scott was taking over as well.

Next thing I knew, Cynthia was practically leaping across a table to verbally defend herself and attack Addie.

"You got a problem, _sweety_?" She nicknamed Addie with a sugar-coated hiss that felt bitter no matter how you heard it.

" _Yeah, I do, actually_." Addie grumbled, putting some platters and stuff down. "I happen to have a _problem_ working all the jobs in the place while you and your _creepy_ boyfriend suck face over there." She flung her words violently in defense of herself.

My face got pale. This wasn't going in a good direction. Where was Vincent, anyways?

"Vince isn't over here right now, _darling_ , so you better come up with another reason to attack me soon or you're gonna look like a total idiot." Cynthia narrowed her stare in on Addie with no fears at all.

" _Whatever_! I don't need to explain anything! For the past freaking three weeks or so your boyfriend hasn't even been showing up to his shifts which leaves _me_ covering for Scott's day shifts since he has to cover _your boyfriend's_." Addie groaned loudly, making the scene an even bigger scene.

"Uhm...Add….el..ine…" I didn't want to interrupt at all, but it _had_ to stop, soon. I barely even squeaked the words.

"Well I'm sorry Vince doesn't have time for a fucking _night shift_ at a _children's restaurant_!" Cynthia yelled.

Addie snapped and started heading towards her.

 _Nope nope nope nope. This is_ _nooot_ _gonna end well…_

Luckily, Scott was there just in time to break up the cat fight.

" _Adeline_ …" Scott grumbled towards her, which surprised me. He was always so laid back, but I suppose even whimpy managers had to be tough sometimes.

"Why are you mad at _me?!_ " Addie hissed, sounding like an angry teenager, which made me want to laugh.

I switched my gaze to Cynthia, who grew a smirk on her face, except for the detestable cringe she gave towards Scott.

"Because _you're the employee_." Scott reminded her of the scenario at hand.

Addie seemed to recognize the situation when he said it and she begrudgingly gave up her aggressive stance, sighing and walking away.

I watched Scott apologize to Cynthia who looked like a Queen listening to a peasant's apology. Then Scott walked off, grumbling angrily at Addie as he tried to catch up to her.

" _You're in so much trouble for this…"_

"... _if it weren't for this party…_ "

"... _and you_ _better_ _be serious about keeping cool next time because I_ _know_ _that_ …"

I wanted to laugh so badly at his grumbling, but I could feel a chilly presence at my back and I didn't want to look even more weak and stupid in front of Cynthia. She scared me.

I finally decided to walk off and find Carmen, which wasn't so hard to do, since she was sitting around lazy in the kitchen, as she promised.

"Did you see the fight?" I asked her, walking up with a grin on my face. I was excited to bring some interest to her boring stance; sitting in a chair smoking.

"Ay, ay, ay! There was a fight?!" She stood up, as if she could maybe still catch something.

"Yeah. Well it's over now. But you'll _never_ guess who it was." I joked, being sarcastic since we'd been hearing Addie rage about it all day.

"Addie and Vince?" She asked.

I shook my head; "Addie and _Cynthia_." I grinned.

"Ahaha! No way! Scott must have been _pissed_! He hates if employees get bitchy with anyone who isn't an employee." Carmen smiled, stars in her eyes as she imagined the rage as if it were a wishful dream.

"He _was_. Like _super_ angry. I think he still is, actually." I guessed, crossing my arms and leaning against the wall.

"Man I can't wait to see him give her a lecture this afternoon…!" Carmen squealed with excitement. If there was one thing she loved; it was fucking around with people and seeing how they reacted to each other.

That's how I was able to know what to believe or not believe from her.

"Hey, by the way, have you seen Vincent?" I asked. "Cynthia was there alone when Addie and her broke out into a fight. I didn't see him anywhere."

Carmen took another puff of her cigarette; "Probably in that creepy ass room." She shrugged.

"Huh?" I was confused.

 _Great, what else is there to this weird place?_

"What room?" I digged.

Carmen turned to me and rolled her eyes. "Oh. It's nothin' exciting, trust me. Just some stupid backroom the employees aren't supposed to spend much time in because there's no cameras watching us in there." She shook her head.

"Wait, there's cameras here?" I felt instantly creeped out.

 _What the heck?! Boss didn't tell me that! Neither did Scott._

"Yeah. I figured they were added just to keep track in case one of us tries to say we were here for our hours when we weren't.

"Anyway...I think Vince just uses that backroom to skip hours and...who knows? Probably do drugs." Carmen laughed evilly.

I laughed along, but secretly wondered why the room was even there. Carmen didn't seem to know much for a girl that's been here so long.

But at the same time, she knew a lot. There were _too many things_ about this place.

I decided to change subject fast before I got myself into anything I didn't need to. I knew, based on my own past, that learning more would only force me to look into things I had no business in.

I tried my hardest to get through the rest of the high-stress day. After I left the kitchen, I got to work watching kids and organizing tables some more when I saw the most genuinely adorable yet hilarious thing.

The kid whose birthday it was…

He wanted the employees to _sing for him._

And Addie just _happened_ to be the one standing there when the kid asked. Knowing how sweet Addie was to the kids, I knew she couldn't pass up on this one. But she had the whole "if I'm going down, i'm taking someone with me" attitude, so I made sure to look hidden and super preoccupied. But my glances quickly turned into a full-on sightseeing moment after Addie freaked out.

"Oh, um...of course, sweetie! Heheh…" Addeline made an exasperated face as she turned to find her closest victim.

" _Scott_ …" she hissed from across the room. Scott made the mistake of making eye contact with her so now he was officially required to be pulled into the apocalypse that was about to take place. I giggled out loud, trying my hardest not to as Addie gave her fake grin telling him the kid wanted them to sing for him.

" _What_? I'm not doing that…" I saw him shake his head to her as he tried to walk away, but Addie got a firm grip on his shoulder that I swear I'd never seen in my life.

" _Just do it…_ " She sighed, giving him a stern order as if _she_ was the manager. I almost burst out laughing.

"Oh my God…" Scott groaned, giving in. "O-okay whatever." He agreed in his normal awkward stutter.

They lit the birthday candles to the _humongous_ cake that had been brought out earlier and Addie gave a look to Scott as if to say "you better join in on this or I will haunt you forever", before they sang for the kid.

It actually wasn't bad. Addie had one of those super light and pretty church voices that you heard in the choirs, and Scott had a pretty regular voice that, at the very least, he kept in tune. And then something happened that I thought I'd never forget.

The kid, who looked so happy to get the employees to sing for him, beamed at Addie and Scott, looked up and them and said in his cute little lisp; " _Are you guys married?_ ".

I lost it. My laugh was so loud I think it could be heard throughout the entire restaurant. My giggles of glee filled the immediate room in a way that made Addie _flinch_. The two just stood there, awkward as hell, trying to find their best way to say no without being rude to the kid or _each other_.

"Oh, um...n-no...heh." Addie stuttered like Scott usually did. "W-we're just...friends…" She gulped, looking strange and giving Scott a pat on the shoulder that looked like it was supposed to be friendly and make it less awkward, but instead it just made it weirder, so Addie stopped entirely and just sort of gravitated away from him entirely, turning and glaring at me for my laugh.

"Y-yeah, sorry buddy." Scott apologized to the adorable chubby-cheeked kid and patted him on the head. I watched him look at the embarrassed Addeline before he adjusted his glasses and patted her shoulder back;

" _Right_...back to work." He ordered to make it less awkward as he walked off. She nodded and continued on to help with cutting the cake after finishing her glare at me and momentary blush from contact with Scott after that.

I squealed with joy at the sight before me. It was not only hilarious, but it was adorable in that awkward sort of way.

And then…

I felt an ominous present looming about from behind me.

My blood went cold and I froze before turning to find the lanky, slouching figure standing _too close_ behind me.

"How _adorable._ " He grinned his ungenuine wide and sinister grin, staring at the same scene I was. "Just like I said... _boy toy_."

My face went pale.

"Something _scare you_ , cutie?" He smirked at me, putting on his best creepy face, which fit him quite well.

"Don't call me that." I cringed at his icy-silver stare which pierced me.

"Leave her alone, Vince." His girlfriend Cynthia crept over to him in a spider-like walk. She leaned against him and chewed her gum trashily.

"So...you a college kid?" Cynthia asked me.

I couldn't tell if she was trying to be friendly or deceitful.

I nodded and gave a slight smile, just trying to stay from their evil side. I felt like no matter what friendliness Cynthia gave off (which was little, if any) Vincent was always there to give me the feeling that they were just planning to off me if I said anything wrong.

"You seem cool…" She nodded to me. "You smoke?" She asked, as if to test what kind of person I was.

"Ah...no." I shook my head, blushing a bit. They made me feel like some kinda daddy's-girl in comparison.

I saw a tattoo on Cynthia's right wrist that looked like something you might get in a prison- similar to that of the equally trashy tattoo that Vincent had on his right arm. But Cynthia's was a line of text on her wrist, while Vincent's was on his arm and it was a picture…of the _Grim Reaper_?

 _Geez...First Lady Reagan should use these two for a "Just Say No" ad._ I joked to myself in my thoughts.

"Awh that's a shame." Cynthia sighed. "Hey Carmen invited me to go hang out one night. I was thinking maybe you should come. Now that there's enough girls to hang out with...we can have a girl's night." She winked excitedly but somehow calm and cool.

I nodded quickly "Yeah sounds fun!" I tried my best not to seem threatening.

Vincent rolled his eyes at us and Cynthia hit him on his arm. I took the chance of the attention on her arm to get a good look at her tattoo, but I was busted.

She looked confusedly at my wandering eyes. She thought I was staring at her boyfriend at first which made her gaze turn evil until she recognized that I was looking at her tattoo.

"S-sorry I just wanted to know what it said. It looks so cool…" I lied, apologizing and blushing mad red. My face felt hotter and brighter red than Addie's face was just five minutes ago from the façade with Scott.

She reached out her arm to let me read it.

I looked closely and saw it was…

 _Oh my God..._ I couldn't believe it, but somehow I could.

" _Vincent_ " it read in cursive, with a small heart at the end. How long had these two been together?

"Are you guys _married_?" I asked, trying my hardest to smile and pretend that her tattoo wasn't a stupid choice.

Vincent's face read a horrified look that I'd never seen from him. He was usually so smug and evilly calm. Now he looked as if I'd brought up the subject of murder at the dinner table. His eyes were big and his mouth was that of someone who wanted to bite their lip. Clearly it was not a popular subject between the two.

"Not _yet."_ Cynthia looked over to Vincent with a glare.

"We're in _public_ , Cyn…" Vincent groaned to her, now looking sour.

Cynthia just cackled at his pain for some reason.

"It doesn't really matter to us." She admitted. "I mean, _just look at us_. Do we _really_ look like marriage kind of people?" Cynthia strangely acknowledged their own juvenile-ness.

I stayed neutral and just gave a shrug.

"I have to get to the kitchen…" I made an excuse to get away from the weirdos and talk to Carmen.

I walked back into the purple and white tiled disgusting cramped space of the kitchen to find Carmen still lazily standing around since it wasn't really either of our shifts. I couldn't blame her. I was being lazy, too.

"Bad news…"

"What's up?" Carmen spit her gum out and threw it into the trash nearby.

"That afternoon Scott-rant you were looking forward to?" I brought up.

"Yeah?"

"Not happening. Not after _that_ awkward interaction." I smirked, intriguing Carmen away from her magazine.

"Speak up, girly! What happened!" She smiled, leaning in.

I looked side to side to make sure no one I didn't want to hear the gossip was nearby.

"Well...a kid made Addie and Scott sing happy birthday to him."

Carmen burst out laughing from that alone. But I interrupted her laugh due to better prospects for laugh material.

"It gets better...the kid asked them _if they were married_." I snickered, trying not to burst into laughter again so I wouldn't distract all the waiters and waitresses walking in and out of the doors with pizza and soda on trays.

"De ninguna manera!" Carmen burst into laughter that I'd been holding back. "What'd they do? What did Scott say?" She dug deeper.

"Um...it was awkward... to say the least." I bit my lip, not wanting to be a gossiper, but not being able to hold back the craziness and hilarity of what had just occurred. Carmen made a face at me that I couldn't really explain.

"And that's _saying_ something, because we're talking about _Scott_ , here." Carmen pointed out, making _me_ burst into laughter now. I never expected Carmen's random catiness because she always was so cool with...well... _everyone_. She was that girl that everyone loved to hang around because she was chill and knew how to have fun. From the looks of it, she was on good terms _even with Vincent_ _and Cynthia_. And that was insane.

I responded in a nod to her pointing out the abnormal level of Scott's awkward dorkiness, even as a manager.

"They patted each other's shoulders and walked away." I tried not to laugh too hard, but just saying it aloud made me realize how weird it was.

In the midst of our crazy laugh session in the kitchen, I thought further into the strange incident to see if there was something else I could share...and I thought about the run-in with Cynthia and Vincent. I realized that Cynthia _must_ have been _more_ than just on good terms with Carmen if they were planning to hang out together.

"Hey so are you and Cynthia going to hang out together?" I asked. Carmen finished wiping the tears from her eyes due to laughing and got serious again.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Did she say somethin'?"

I shook my head. "No...well...she invited me to hang out with you guys. Do you two hang out often?"

Carmen just shrugged like there was no big deal as to who she really had been hanging out with. "I mean...sometimes we hang out. I'm trying to get her and Addie on good terms since they're my friends, especially in the workplace." She explained plainly, looking as if there was no chance in hell any way, but she was still gonna try.

"Oh ok." I didn't know what else to say. To be honest, I didn't want to get stuck in a catfight in the mall or whatever.

"You should come. It will help to keep the two calm." Carmen suggested.

I gave an internal scream. I was now officially stuck in workplace drama.

"Okay, sure." I shrugged, pretending everything was fine by me. It was not. "Where you guys all gonna go?"

"Usually we hang out at my house or Addies and do a sleepover." Carmen shrugged once more.

"Wait a second." I stopped in my mind tracks. "You guys all three hang out _normally_?"

Carmen gave a nod "Yup. Those two fight all the time. It means nothin'." She giggled a bit.

"You never sleep at Cynthia's place?" I wondered, pondering why she said only her own place or Addie's.

"Well…" she began to explain. I could tell this was going to go somewhere, so I went ahead and leaned against the disgusting tile wall in my purple polo. "When I say _my place_ and Addie's...I mostly mean Addie's."

"Why?"

"Because Addie is single and has a nice girly-ass apartment with no kids or anything running around." Carmen laughed at the obviousness of the fact that she had a family at her home. I still wondered how she did all these young girl things while having a family. "My kids are mostly teens now...but...they still hang around the house."

I nodded.

"And _Cyn's_ apartment...well that's technically _Vince's_ apartment." Carmen made a face at me that was trying to say ' _so you understand, right?_ ' But I had no clue what she meant and she could tell.

"Vince's place is scary."

"Oh." I nodded. "Like his stare?"

Carmen gave a laugh. "Yeah. I have no idea why Cyn is with that guy."

I thought the statement was strange. There was nothing to me that even _hinted_ at the idea that Vincent was anymore criminal or creepy than Cynthia.

"Cynthia doesn't exactly seem _straight-laced_ to me." I pointed out and Carmen half-nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, well. She's cool, you'll see when we hang out with her. Not everyone is like they seem." She sighed, thinking on something, clearly.

"But Vincent?" I asked, wondering why it applied to Cynthia but not him.

"Eh. There's rumours about him, chica."

"But none about Cynthia?" I was even more confused.

Carmen stopped; "No- there are the same rumours about _her_. But there are some _other_ rumours about him and...women."

I made a strange face that verged on cringing. That could have meant _a billion_ different things.

"He isn't faithful to Cynthia?" I asked.

Carmen actually laughed at this. "On the contrary, girly. I've actually never seen Vince more faithful to anything like her. But they kind of... _enable each other_. They're co-dependent on each other in an unhealthy way… and they do drugs and...all kinds of shit."

"So what do you mean?"

"I meant _before_ Cyn."

"Oh." I nodded, still not quite sure. "But you meant that he was a player or something?"

"Um." Carmen gave a cringing face that i'd never seen before. "Without _consent_ , sure. That's what I've heard."

The blood in my face rushed everywhere but there. I went pale as ice.

 _That's why he seems so creepy...maybe?_

I was sure of it. At least partially.

"So...how come he hasn't gotten...caught?"

"Well the reason no one hears is because...we don't ever see 'em." Carmen blurted, but I could tell she thought she was saying too much. At least, mostly because we were in public and anyone there had the power to tell Vincent.

"Oh." My voice cracked.

 _Okay. Now that's_ _definitely_ _why he seems...horrifying._

My mind rushed in a scared way. I suddenly began to _wish_ the guy would never come to his shifts because I did _not_ wanna be around him during the afternoons. No matter how 'faithful' he was to Cynthia...that didn't mean he wouldn't at least _hurt_ me or something...or kill me.

 _You're being crazy, Mae. Chill the heck out._ I thought to myself.

 _The guy works at a kids place._ _Surely_ _Scott wouldn't hire…_

"How'd he get hired then?" I whispered.

"Like I said, kid. They're only rumours. No one has evidence." Carmen told me, all very hush-hush. "...Probably for a reason." She mumbled even quieter, under her breath.

"But I dunno that I believe it all." Carmen shrugged. "I mean don't get me wrong...Vince is kinda creepy. But he's a pretty cool guy if you hang with him."

"Still...even with those rumours...why would _Scott_ hire him?" I asked, knowing Scott would definitely be too scared of something like that.

Carmen laughed. "Scott doesn't hire anyone, here. Boss does. And Vince is related to a previous work partner of Boss...so..."

I suddenly understood. "Oh."

"But...Scott _has_ the power to hire people and fire them since he is manager...he just doesn't bother to much 'cause at a place like this we don't have many options, to be honest." Carmen explained his position, clarifying things a bit more to me.

I suddenly understood the weird position everyone was in under this place. And as things got weirder, I wasn't sure I wanted to be part of it all anymore.

* * *

 **;) Hope you enjoyed. Gonna update some more and it could be soon, but don't be surprised if it is in like 2 weeks or so.**


	5. The Night Out

_Author's Note_ : Damn, Cat! Back at it again with the random updates! (this is an old meme what am I doing)

I'm back dudes. Also the name of this fanfic is getting changed for various reasons. Most of them are actually funny, but I'm sure you don't care. It's ok. (lol)

I have decided I will now be updating weekly. I have refined my story line for this novel and it will be even better now :) I can't wait for all you guys out there reading this to see how it pieces together. (If anyone is there reading this?) I hope to be more of a regular updater now since I write all the time- just usually random stuff. Now it will all mostly be this fanfic. Enjoy the next two chapters!

-Cw

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

 **The Night Out**

The moment I sat up in my bed, hair frizzed and all, I knew I was going to dread this day.

 _Today was the day of that get-together thing with Cynthia..._ I remembered, wishing I'd said no to it.

My previous conversation with Carmen about Cynthia's creep-o boyfriend wasn't exactly a pleasant _warming up_ for a day with her in our presence.

Like Carmen said, I knew she wasn't some exact clone of her boyfriend. But I had a feeling Carmen was just talking good about her the way she did everyone when she wasn't poking fun at them.

I got up from my dorm room mess and prepared myself for the day. If getting through the mess of a boring evening out of classes wasn't enough, now I had to wait with the anxious anticipation of tonight's event.

I finally chose a simple cute dress for the evening and threw on a cool member's only jacket on top to make it seem less overdone and cutesy.

In no time I was sitting down drinking coffee in the kitchen of the dorm hall with a book, attempting to not stress about the ordeal. In the midst of my half-hearted study session to pass time, I wondered whether Carmen had ever told Addie that Cynthia was coming and whatnot. My conclusion was that it didn't really matter because Addie would be angry about the entire thing anyways. I giggled aloud after taking a sip of coffee and picturing Addie's fuming face from the other day alongside Scott's panicked expression as he tried to calm two rageful women.

After what seemed like ages It finally was time so I drove down to meet my friends at Addie's apartment like Carmen told me before I left work yesterday.

I walked up a level to find her apartment number. I gave a knock and suddenly from behind the plain caramel-colored door with golden font for it's number, a very grumpy looking Adeline opened the door slowly and greeted me.

"Oh. Hey Mabel. You here to hang out with the delinquents, too?" She asked, groaning. I noticed her plain look like she usually wore without much makeup. From her hand, she sipped from a tiny white teacup. Clearly she agreed to this night out of spite.

I nodded and gave a smile anyways and she led me into her home.

The entire place was clean as hell and super girly. Not really the kind of place I imagined such a plain girl living in, but Addie always surprised me with her secret inner girliness. Doilies were literally everywhere beneath every lamp and fancy china hung from her yellow wallpaper in the living area which was open to the kitchen. The kitchen, which Carmen happened to be scrounging through while Cynthia laid back on the couch flipping through channels on her TV.

"Hey Carmen." I gave a wave.

"H-Hey Cynthia." I tried to keep calm as I waved at her. She paid no mind to me but gave a half-assed wave since she was distracted. _She really isn't_ _that_ _scary…_

"Hey there, chica!" Carmen greeted boldy.

I noticed Carmen was wearing a leather jacket on top of a red crop top and pair of jeans that suited her well while her face was adorned with crimson lipstick to match her shirt, plus a nice layer of neutral eyeshadow. Cynthia, however, looked like she was ready for a Metal concert or something since she wore what looked like a _Metallica_ t-shirt, topped with another jean jacket of hers which was ripped at the sleeves. She wore jean shorts and some fishnet stockings which led all the way down to her combat boots. Her much darker makeup contrasted with the likes of Carmen's red.

"So guys...what're we doing tonight?" I asked them, wondering what they did during "sleepovers". Part of me doubted they even did anything fun.

"We're going out tonight!" Carmen ordered.

Addie practically spit out her tea; "What, why?!"

I wondered why she reacted so ridiculously. There must have been a history with them going "out".

"Because! There ain't nothin' to do around here." Carmen crossed her arms.

Cynthia was already standing up from excitement. "Alright let's go!" She cheered.

"Pluuuuus…" Carmen sang looking at Adeline in a way that made her huff.

"Oh no...not again." Addie groaned to herself.

"We're gonna find you and Mabel a _date_!" Carmen grinned at us both.

Addie sighed and rolled her eyes; "And just where are these 'boys' coming from?"

"Downtown, girl!" Carmen cheered in excitement. "We're hittin' some bars!"

Cynthia clapped at this.

"Just think- then we can all go on quadruple dates together." Carmen grinned still. "By the way- where's Vince at, Cyn? You didn't leave him to hang with us tonight, did ya?" She asked, turning her head.

Cynthia huffed similar to Addie at the subject.

"Night shift." She answered. "He won't be home 'till 7ish."

"In the _morning_?" Carmen twisted her nose in disgust that Cynthia had to wait for him like that.

"Yeah. That's why I hang with you guys, remember?" She laughed and then droned on to herself; "Otherwise it's just like a weeknight...going asleep and waiting for him to come home in bed."

"That is _if he goes to work_ …" Addie grumbled under her breath to herself.

"Dang, girl. You're depressing me just talking about it. Let's go dress up Addie." Carmen decided.

Addie turned around wildly. " _Excuse me_?" She crossed her arms. "I am a grown woman. I can dress _myself_."

"Right and that's the problem." Carmen laughed at her. "You can do _everything_ yourself, Addie. It's time for you to get a hobby other than your job!"

"Yeah and that hobby is a _man_!" Cynthia cheered, fists in the air.

"Yeah; a man-hobby other than _Scott_!" Carmen cheered in similar fashion, laughing like crazy. The two high fived, jeering at the less-than-entertained Addie.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny." Addie rolled her eyes and grumbled as she walked away; "Not like I haven't heard _that joke_ before."

"Fine. I'll go get ready." She went to her room, speaking aloud this time.

Once we were all ready and Cynthia and Carmen had forced Addie to change three times so she looked more provocative, we all headed to the bar downtown that all the kids at my college raved about. Cynthia drove us in her boyfriend's car since she claimed she'd pick him up after his shift or something. I stared in wonder at the thing and the choice in color.

" _Purple_?" I dared to ask.

"Yeah, Vincie thought it was cool to paint it that." Cynthia answered taking her keys out and flipping her shades down like a badass.

On the inside, I laughed my ass off at the nickname she called him as we drove to the bar.

The bustling crowd was exciting but a little much for the short people like Carmen and I. The bar was super modern and there were plenty of cute guys there, a couple which I recalled having classes with. Carmen and I sat in the back drinking while we commented on the guys until she forced me to wave at one of them which eventually came over to give me his number. He was super charming and I thought I'd seen him in my English 101 class before. Carmen cheered victoriously. Meanwhile, Carmen and I kept catching Addie hiding in the corner.

"Girl! Look at all these cute guys! Go talk to one of them!" Carmen hissed. "Or at least sit around and look pretty so _they'll_ talk to _you_."

"These guys are like...Mabel's age." Addie said, looking flustered. I could tell she _hated_ this.

As Carmen was about to criticize again, Cynthia rejoined us with some money in hand. "Anyone want some drinks?"

"Where'd you get _that_?" Addie asked looking surprised.

"Did Vince give you that cash?" Carmen was equally confused since Cynthia didn't have a job and only Vincent was paying rent for whatever horrifying apartment they lived in somewhere.

"Nah grabbed it off some guys. And girls. And random counters." Cynthia shrugged.

"GEEZ, Cyn!" Carmen face palmed. "You _gotta_ quit it with the small-time crime shit, girl. Seriously!"

"Pshhh it's not so bad, Carmen. Plus this place is totally lame. There is _no way_ manager-girl is getting a guy _her type_ here." Cynthia snickered.

" _I'm not the manager_."

"Whatever."

Carmen ignored the small argument and nodded. "Nah you're right, Cyn. You know any other places?"

Cynthia grinned wide with excitement. "Hell yeah I do! Let's go."

We rushed out, Addie rushing a bit faster than everyone else, and hopped back into the purple abomination that Cynthia's boyfriend thought was so cool.

Cynthia drove us on the outskirts of where all the newest stuff was and anyone could tell where it was going from here.

"Oh God… Where is she taking us?" Adeline huffed in disgust, arms crossed.

"Chill, girl. I trust Cyn to take us somewhere cool." Carmen smiled. And that very smile dropped the second we pulled up to this bar.

We all stumbled up to the run down thing that looked like something out of a movie where all the villains talked business. As we all walked in, it didn't get any better. The wooden floors creaked and the place seemed _dusty_. No doubt everyone turned their heads when four young females walked in. Cynthia, perhaps, blended in, but we stuck out like sore thumbs. Stuck out _bad_. As in stuck out in the _easy_ _victim_ way. Everyone eyed us carefully. The assortment of characters in the room included surly bikers, druggies, and part time criminals.

" _Cynthia?!_ Where'd you find this place?" Carmen squeaked under her breath. I turned to find a wide-eyed Carmen and a barely-breathing Addie.

Meanwhile, Cynthia gave a sigh of pleasant happiness as if she were looking back on a good memory or something.

"This is where Vincent and I met." Cynthia swooned, smiling more than I'd ever seen her do without smirking in that creepy evil grin.

"You met _Vincent here?!_ " Carmen hissed, not believing it. "Girl this place is scary as hell!"

"It's not _just_ scary- it's full of drug addicts, bums, and criminals. _Of Course_ she met Vincent here." Adeline made a snide comment, grinning. "Now let's get outta here before one of us gets stabbed or something." Addie changed back to her serious tone and turned around, but Carmen pulled her back quickly.

"Cynthia already took off for the bar…." She pointed.

The three of us winced and regretfully walked over to her at the ugly oak-wood bar. The bartender had multiple scars on his face that made me cringe and he was cleaning glasses.

"Oh...hey. You're that girl?" He spoke to Cynthia. The three of us just listened in as we stood behind her.

"The one that left with the _purple guy_." The bartender winced just as we did minutes ago.

"Purple…?" Addie made a confused face.

"Yeah he always comes to this place still wearing some purple uniform." The bartender groaned. "So we call him that."

Addie still had a contorted face until she thought about it. "Oh. The Fazbear uniform. Purple polo."

In mere seconds she already had something to nag about. "Oh _great_ way to represent our company…" She groaned angrily.

"He never tells me his name but...he's always here. All the time. Not on routine or whatever. Just whenever he feels like it, I guess." The surly bartender looked Cynthia up and down. "You're the first one in a while I've seen ever return to the bar after meeting him."

Addie and I went pale. "I wonder if Vincent isn't partying with Cynthia when he doesn't show up for shifts…" Addie whispered to me, wide-eyed and wondering.

"Whaddya mean?" I wondered what _exactly_ she was saying.

"I mean I wonder if he goes drinking _here_ instead. Maybe Cynthia _thinks_ he's going to work."

I was impressed by Adeline's willingness to give Cynthia the chance to be the innocent person in all of it.

"I'm the real deal, buddy." Cynthia arrogantly spouted to the bartender with her nose practically in the air. "We live together."

The bartender almost laughed at her. "Yeah you seem fuckin' crazy enough."

Cynthia seemed to take this as a compliment.

"So what'll it be, ladies?" He asked, giving the eye to the three of us since we weren't the typical customers he received.

Cynthia ordered all of us some beers with the money she… _found_ earlier and handed each of us one. We sat at a table, though still none of us were at ease- Cynthia being the exception.

I looked around at everyone. Carmen was whole-heartedly adapting to the situation and chilling as she laid back and drank her beer. Adeline, however looked high strung, like usual, but this time she was aware of her own stress which only seemed to make it worse. She also refused to drink the beer. Cynthia was laying back in her chair looking like she was in some sort of dreamscape, merrily humming to herself and giggling as she looked around the room. I was surprised to see her responsibleness in not drinking since she was driving us back.

"So...we still didn't find Addie a man-hobby." Carmen sighed.

"Sorry Adds." Cynthia cackled.

"Don't call me that." Adeline simply groaned.

"Yep, you'll just have to stick to your Scott-hobby for now." Carmen added, trying her hardest not to laugh too much since she knew Addie could snap at any moment under high stress.

Adeline just rolled her eyes at the two.

Instead of attempting to find better bars, we decided to spend the rest of the night checking out some different clubs, most of which we just stood out the door just to get denied since we were an especially strange bunch.

One bouncer even commented on it to our dismay.

"A metalhead, a soccer mom, a latina, and a college girl" he called us. I thought what he called Addie was especially funny. It was even funnier when the bouncer then proceeded to flirt with Carmen...so that was how we got in.

We spent the entire night just hanging around in the club. Carmen and Cynthia were loving it- dancing like crazy. I joined them every now and then, but got tired pretty fast so I joined Addie in her awkward loneliness.

"I take it you don't like social events." I smirked, speaking with her.

"Where'd you get that idea?" She droned sarcastically laying her face in her hands while her elbows rested against her knees.

"So what _do_ you like?" I asked seriously. It wouldn't hurt to get to know her better. I knew somewhere deep down there had to be a softer side to her.

"Reading...I guess." Her face turned a light shade of pink because she knew what I was going to ask next.

"What kind of stuff?" I asked, smiling at her embarrassment.

"Well...don't laugh. I know I don't really seem like the kinda girl but...I read romance novels." She huffed a laugh, closing her eyes and admitting; "A lot of them."

The pink blush that seem to dust her cheeks lightly was adorable. It made my heart melt for her. She had a soft side after all!

"I won't laugh. I read some, too. It's okay. Every girl does." I reassured her, giving her my best warm smile I could offer. She _never_ was this vulnerable. I had to let her trust in me if I wanted to earn her friendship.

"Yeah... _every girl_ …" Addie seemed to ponder the thought, looking down at her thumbs and blushing red now. "But...I'm not like every girl. Not like _you guys_ …"

"Huh?" I looked at her, feeling puzzled.

She sighed and leaned back against the sofa-like chair.

" _Carmen_ , and _Cynthia_ , and _you_ …." She looked up at the ceiling, disappointment in her eyes. "You all have normal lives. Carmen has her husband and kids...you've got college and probably plenty of dates, right? Even _freaking_ Cynthia has _Vincent_ …"

I thought I saw tears well up in her eyes for a moment, but she continued on with her barrier of protection from vulnerability. "I guess what I'm saying is...even I have to admit…" She groaned; "Carmen is a far-too-trusting idiot who parties too much. Cynthia is a _degenerate_ who does drugs and doesn't even have a job. You're just an innocent and inexperienced college kid…"

Addie returned to looking back at her lap, she smiled for a moment at her own naïveté. "But in the end, all of you are better than me. No matter how many faults I seem to find in each of you. I'm just some socially awkward girl with no boyfriend, no kids, and only her crappy job to focus on."

I took a moment to soak in the realization that Addie was announcing her own self-hated so formally, and then the moment struck me to defend her from her own harm.

"That's not true, Addie! That's not how _I_ see it. I don't even think that's how Carmen sees it, either!" I practically yelled. It actually surprised her for a moment. She awoke from her own sad-storm and turned to me to hear what would come next.

"Look- maybe you don't have a boyfriend. And maybe you're more introverted, too. But that doesn't mean anything!" I pounded my fists on my lap. I wanted to believe it as much as I wanted her to believe it. "You only have your job now, right? Well Cynthia only has her boyfriend now. But that doesn't mean either of you couldn't have one or the other or both any time later. You aren't _stuck_ there, Adeline." I nodded to her.

She looked at me, speechless for just a moment, until Cynthia walked up and Adeline's face was all aglow.

"Oh great. _You_ again…" Addie rolled her eyes at Cynthia who was smirking at the whole scene.

I was scared as to where this would go.

"Would you _shut_ it?" Cynthia groaned at her.

Every bone in my body screamed for me to go find Carmen. I knew this was going to only get worse and _I_ certainly wouldn't be able to break up the fight.

"You first." Addie hissed.

"Quit sitting around and writhing in self pity!" Cynthia rolled her eyes, clearly hearing what Addie had been talking to me about. Cynthia turned away from us to give us her speech without looking us in the eye. "You two _both_ are such innocent idiots. You're both better than this."

My head and heart both did a one-eighty. Was this her way of showing her support for us? Man my new friends were all weird.

"I guess I just gotta keep protecting you two from your own damn selves." Cynthia cackled to herself.

"Says the one who brought us to the scariest damn bar in town?" Addie raised an eyebrow.

Cynthia gave a small laugh; "That kind of danger is barely even relevant when you hate yourself. What does physical harm even mean if you don't even appreciate your own being anyways?" She walked off. "You two are worse off than I thought…." I heard her grumble to herself.

There was an echoing moment of silence between Addie and I, even amongst the loud club music as we sat alone again.

"Well that was weird as hell." I scoffed.

"No kidding." Addie half-giggled. "Let's just get back to the apartment now."


	6. Suspicion

**Chapter 6**

 **Suspicion**

As if getting everyone back into the purple monstrosity wasn't enough of a chore, apparently getting back to Adeline's apartment would be an even bigger chore.

"It probably wasn't a good idea that we left around twelve if you had to pick your boyfriend up like six hours later." Carmen bit her lip, thinking about the situation before getting angry because she was tired. She realized that it was partially her own fault as well since Cynthia had already mentioned it many times.

"Sorry." Cynthia apologized. She was surprising me just a little more every minute I hung around her.

"Never thought I'd have to pull up to this place so early." Addie groaned nightmarishly as we pulled up to the restaurant.

Cynthia ignored the comment and bit her lip; "I'm a bit late…"

"By a bit, you mean _an hour_?" Carmen laughed, pointing to the time on her watch which stated "7:06 AM".

"Yeah." Cynthia grumbled. "And he isn't here…"

"Any sign of him?" Carmen asked.

"Nah, looks like the place is locked up." Adeline sighed.

Cynthia thought for a moment and I could suddenly see her feminine sense of stress and worry kicking in. "Okay. Sorry guys. One more detour." She groaned at her own self.

All of us were pretty much sucked into the witchhunt now, so no one really complained. We were tired, but not _that_ tired. Most of us had substituted alcohol for soda, so we were jazzed up. We whirled through neighborhood after neighborhood, each one further increasing in shadiness and cheapness the further we went. In not too long we arrived at what appeared to be Cynthia's apartment. The complex was gray, dull, and to be entirely honest- horrifying. I was suddenly reminded of who this was, despite the fact that she'd been warming up to us. Since we were all horrified, excluding Cynthia, we decided to guard her in her search for her boyfriend. We walked three levels up to the apartment and knocked on the door. The crickets and birds chirped as the sun had just begun to rise, making a light blue haze cover the sky which still left it difficult to see, but at least made it a little less creepy. What sounded like a couple big dogs barked off in the distance.

The door remained closed and Carmen and I had already given up hope in finding Cynthia's boyfriend. Addie just seemed complacent. But Cynthia still stood, waiting. "Fucking neighbor's dobermans." She commented on the dogs and rolled her eyes just before she returned her attention to the door and knocked again; "Vince?" She dared to yell this time, and knock a bit harder.

"Maybe he's at the bar?" Addie suggested.

Cynthia told her to shush and suddenly put her ear up against the door. Her face was contorted for a moment and then suddenly she just decided to bang on the door again. "VINCE!" She yelled louder this time.

In about a minute or two the door actually opened, slightly frightening most of us since we were convinced he wasn't there. Once again, I was unimpressed by my mind's ability to block out the fact that we were searching for one of the people that made me most uncomfortable, since I felt really disappointed after expecting to feel excited that we'd found who we were searching for.

Vincent still had his hair pulled back, but now it was looser and some of his bangs lay amongst other hairs which had escaped the tie he had it in. He looked like a complete fucking mess. At least, more than usual, that is. And that was saying something.

His eyes were bloodshot as hell. And he looked like he was leaning on the door, but I had a feeling it wasn't because he was trying to be cool. I was sure it was because he couldn't keep balance.

"Hey babe. Where the _fuck_ were you?" He spoke in a slightly jitterish-slur that I couldn't explain. I wasn't even sure if he was upset or happy to see her.

Cynthia was unmoved about all the weirdness so far, so I figured this must be the norm.

"I'm really sorry, sweety." Cynthia said so cutesily that it made me want to vomit. It had to be unreal. "I was late from out partying. I'll make it up, I promise."

Cynthia gracefully reached up to hug him and then suddenly…

 _She had him in a choke hold?!_

"EXCEPT IT LOOKS LIKE YOU MADE UP FOR IT YOURSELF." She hissed angrily.

Oh. It _was_ unreal.

"What the _fuck_ are you doing _shooting up_ _without me_ _?!_ " She let him go finally and yelled invasively.

"Ow! God damn! Sorry just…" He tried to stop her from any more abuse. "Where have you been?" He asked her seriously now. It almost sounded desperate.

Was he normally pathetic like this when drugged up?

"I _told you_. Partying. How did you get home?" Cynthia switched tone now to the usual girlfriend speak.

"I just called up a taxi." He shrugged, leaning over in that slouchy way even _more_ than his usual slouch. "Where the hell is my car?" He asked now, rubbing the back of his head and sniffling in some sort of weird twitch.

"I took the girls in it. We went to the club." She explained. I wondered why he wasn't driving it himself, but decided not to ask. He probably had his license revoked was my guess.

He raised an eyebrow and I recognized his silvery eyes looking us over.

"I took them to the place we met." She smiled up at his tall slender figure.

"You took _them_ there?" He laughed his ass off and the three of us just continued to pretend we weren't there and eavesdropping on their conversation.

"Mhm. They were fucking horrified it was hilarious." She whispered, but we all heard.

"So you returning now?" Vincent asked his girlfriend, looking desperately at her.

"No sorry. I've gotta take them back and then I'm sleeping over." Cynthia explained, looking glad as hell that he was desperate for her. The two were both controlling psychos, it seemed.

"Where you sleeping over at?" Vincent asked, looking almost paranoid as if there was a conspiracy against him to take his girlfriend.

"Addie's." She answered swaying cutely at her boyfriend despite the fact that he appeared both drunk _and_ high off of some serious shit.

"Oh...Phonesy-Boy-Toy girl…" Vincent spaced out for a moment and spoke what sounded like complete gibberish. It was kinda freaking some of us out.

"Ph- what?" Addie finally had the nerve to ask since he was talking about her.

"Phonesy." He repeated. "Phone...fuck….!" He held his hand against his head. "Phone."

We looked at the complete insanity that took place. Vincent was hunched over holding his head like he was actually freaking losing it.

"Geez Vince you're on some _serious shit_." Carmen shook her head.

"What's wrong?" Cynthia seemed to be able to interpret this complete breakdown as him having a problem.

"Forgot to fuckin' call Phonesy at the end of my shift." Vince huffed angrily. "You can tell boy toy for me, right, girly girl?" He waved halfheartedly at Addie as if to shoo her or something.

"Who the hell is _Phonesy_?" Addie shook her head at him as if he was a lesser being which made me laugh on the inside.

"Fucking PHONE! The fucking Phone guy. Fucking…" Vincent snapped at her which was no surprise. He seemed to be at a loss for words while he writhed in whatever random pain was taking over him. "Sc...Scott. Or whatever the _fuck_ his name is. I call him Phonesy. 'Cause he's always _fucking_ demanding that I call him at the end of my shifts and leaving me all these _fucking_ messages at the security desk." He ranted on.

I laughed at the chosen name he'd given our manager Scott.

"Okay-Vincie...chill…" Cynthia tried to calm him. "You need to get some rest, babe." She sighed. "This is why we shoot _together._ Otherwise it just looks sad as hell." She walked him into the apartment.

"Be right back." Cynthia turned to us for a moment then continued into the apartment.

"Well _those two_ are a _complete mess._ I take back what I said earlier. I'd rather have no life." Adeline joked.

"Said earlier?" Carmen turned to us, looking confused.

"Nothing." I waved it off and we went back to the car to wait for Cynthia.

"One second." Addie took out her pager just after we headed back down the stairs on the deck of the apartment.

"Whatchya doing?" Carmen asked, looking puzzled at her. She seemed done with all the drama from today already. Apparently even the loving _Carmen_ had a limit.

"Paging Scott." Adeline gave a sigh and bit her lip. "Doing what the idiot wanted me to do."

"Oh, Addie. It's not gonna kill anyone if he doesn't call him. I'm sure he knows he left his shift." Carmen sighed.

"If Scott nags Vincent enough about it that Vincent can still remember to bitch about it even when he's high- it must be important. At least, to Scott." Adeline decisively stated. I was somewhat impressed with her insight, although it was just like Addie to worry about such a thing.

"Right. It matters to _Scott_. But does that mean it matters to _you?_ " Carmen asked, in all seriousness. I could see the point she was making.

"Yes." Adeline answered in an instant, but then Carmen raised an eyebrow at the answer which made Addie blush furiously.

"I m-mean...if it matters to Scott then it matters to the company." Addie never wanted the impact of emotion involved in her decisions even though they impacted her decisions whether she said so or not. "Look- you said it; my job is all I got. So I'm gonna protect it, okay?" Addie hissed and walked off to the nearest horrifying phone booth.

Meanwhile Carmen and I stood outside in silence.

"She's acting weird." Carmen stated. "She's hiding something."

I was taken aback by this. Carmen _did_ know her more than anyone. _Was_ she acting suspicious?

"She had like...a full-on break down earlier." I confessed. "About how she has only her job."

"I know, she tells me about it, too." Carmen gave a deep sigh. "Or she used to, at least. Now she doesn't talk about it to _me_ anymore. But I'd been trying to get her a date because she seemed so…." Carmen squinted her eyes.

"Yeah." I just nodded. We watched Addie speak animatedly through the phone from afar. She seemed both puzzled and concerned about her conversation. When she hung up from the brief conversation, she walked back to us, averting eye contact.

"So...what was all the 'calling at the end of the shift' about?" I asked her. Addie shuffled her feet around for a moment.

"To be honest, I have no clue." She huffed, pulling her hair back.

"Well did you _ask_ him?" Carmen whined.

"Why do you look stressed?" We pressured her with questions.

"He _told_ me. But it was...y'know, his usual bullshit." Addie rolled her eyes. I winced and almost laughed because she rarely cursed. "Something about liability of the place. He tried to appeal to my belief of Vincent's irresponsibility…"

She seemed awful convinced that Scott was just trying to lie to her.

"And...I'm stressed because I'm tired of sitting back while insane _shit_ like this happens to me every day at that damn restaurant." Addie stomped one of her feet slightly and looked around, as if she was thinking about something else. "I'm gonna figure out what that night shift is." She finally turned to us.

I raised my eyebrows, and so did Carmen. Adeline always took matters into her own hands, but rarely was it ever to deceive Scott or the company. If Scott didn't want to tell her…

"How?" I asked, my voice raised five pitches. I had already thought about it myself, but every time I concluded that there was no real way to figure it out.

"I'll find a way." Addie shrugged.

Carmen and I just dropped the subject, since we weren't sure how to feel. But Cynthia soon showed up at the end of the creaking wooden stairs of the complex.

"Ready to go?" She asked, taking the keys back out. Suddenly she froze, recognizing the weird state all of us were in. "What's wrong?"

I answered quickly; "Nothing."

Cynthia knew when to keep out of a conversation. We all walked back to the purple car and drove back to Addie's place.

* * *

 **WEEK 2 UPDATE BY/BEFORE NEXT MON**

Thanks for reading. Oh! and if you have any suggestions or ideas for the story please do leave it in the comments :) . I try to weave both story and 'fun' parts together so if it is something you are dying to see, I would love to write it. I _do_ have a timeline of the events that take place, but I also have "filler spaces" which I can only describe as a 'crescendo' leading up to said events or so on. Sometimes the 'events' are simply developments I want to see happen in the characters, so if I left any out I really like to see readers point out what it is about a character they think is ridiculous/stupid/underdeveloped/ or even a side they like in them.


	7. Secrets

_Author's Note:_ Hey! Week 2 update here right on time! Sorry, I had this done by Sunday but I was too busy studying and helping someone with college algebra to read over and make sure that everything is going according to plan in the story. You should see the insane timeline with the stuff I was trying to piece together (it was like a puzzle lol). So things are going to start progressively speeding up. Oh yes; and I will be posting Chapter 8 either later this evening or tomorrow (ok when I say evening I mean freakin' 6 am in tomorrow because I am on the weirdest schedule rn and I love it- college has been a blessing). I meant to put it up alongside this because 7 branches out into both chapter 8 and 9. It changes POV briefly to give insight. You'll see. :) Thankyou for anyone reading my stuff. I know this fanfic doesn't get nearly as many views/follows as my Undertale one but this one means a lot to me for a strange reason I probably shouldn't explain bc you'd all think I was crazy lol.

-cw

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

 **Secrets**

The music box-like tune emitted from the animatronics, dancing and swaying on stage as a crowd of kids gathered around the stage to look up at them. Like some sorta creepy robotic cult.

I watched as Bonnie's purplish-blue arm twitched irregularly every few seconds as he played the guitar, strumming like a complete idiot. Freddy's blue eyes blinked like a drowsy toddler which looked strange as he would turn left and right, opening his mouth to sing this horrid childish song. Chica, the yellow monstrosity, opened her own beak to sing along every now and then as well, and her purple eyes glinted in a, somewhat disturbingly, excessive joy towards the children.

 _I wish I could be like them._ I laughed to myself. _Smiling all day no matter what. No way to comprehend the struggles and turmoil of everyday life. No boring end-of-the-day employee meetings to listen to Scott talk for an hour about rules, regulations, and how literally no one is following them or listening to him._

Except for Addie, that is.

Which would always earn some glares from the other employees.

People _hated_ Addie. Who could blame them?

In classes, everyone _hated_ the teacher's pets. And Adeline was most definitely the... _manager's_ pet. As creepy as that sounded. Not that Scott and Addie always got along. Their interactions were just as awkward and boring as any interaction between Scott and any of the day shift employees. It was just that Addie always followed the rules, so that made her a "model employee". Even Carmen and I, her only friends, snorted in laughter at this term.

Of course, there was _one_ upside to being a boring human with emotions instead of an inanimate animatronic and that was the benefit of meetings which would turn out to be hilarious; _riveting_ even. All a meeting required to be entertaining or, at the very least, not boring, was for either something ridiculous to happen during the work day before the meeting, or for two of the employees to be at war. As usual, the employees would always try to make it fun by doing stupid things for entertainment...making fun of the animatronics, telling scary stories (most of which I was sure Scott had told us _weren't_ true), and chewing gum _really loudly_ as our manager spoke. Just to get on both Scott's nerve and to get annoyed glances or winces from Addie.

But none of those things ever compared to the hell raised by Adeline and Vincent when a fight would break out. It was one of the few times Scott would ever get angry at Addie, so naturally it was golden.

The funny thing was- Vincent wasn't much of a _hell raiser_ as crazy as that sounded, compared to the things he spent his time doing based on what i'd gathered he did; which included drugs, parties, metal concerts, and scary bars. He sort of liked to lay low: standing in the back, as always, keeping to himself, and watching everyone. That, of course, didn't make him any less creepy, though. And when provoked, he _did_ have quite a bite.

This evening, I cleared out all the leftover kids who'd been watching Freddy and friends and brought them to their parents to close for the day. I pulled back my brunette hair and gave a sigh of relief.

 _I can finally calm down now_. A smile built up on my face as my shoulders relaxed.

Everyone gathered for the routine weekly employee meeting after tidying everything up to be ready for the next day.

I took a seat in one of the chairs meant for the kids to sit at while Carmen leaned against the table next to me.

"Which one's your favorite?" I heard some voices to the right of us speak over at the stage. It was a guy from the kitchen who had his hair spiked, playing around with some other guys from the kitchen.

"The bear, dude." One of them with many thorn tattoos on his right arm giggled, smoking a cigarette.

Their friend snorted at him. "It's Freddy, man. How do you not know the name of the place you work?"

"Well what's _your_ favorite?" the tattooed man sneered, making fun of him in return.

He actually thought about it for a moment. "The bunny, man. 'Cause he shreds on the guitar like me." he smirked.

I just laughed a little at how all of them were acting like the frat boys at my college. Total idiots on purpose.

"Shut the hell up man, you dunno how to play _guitar_." the man with spiked-hair finally returned to the conversation.

Carmen finally decided to join in on the conversation as she usually would with _anyone_ in the restaurant. "Mine is the chicken." she posed sillily, like the animatronic usually was. She posed quite well, strangely enough.

"Shut up Carmen, you're crazy!" the guy from the kitchen returned, jokingly swatting at her from across the room. Carmen giggled from their reactions. I joined in on the laughs as well but turned to see Vincent with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall watching us weirdly. It made me quit laughing for a moment, but I soon returned to the act so I didn't seem strange. Meanwhile, Adeline was off at some other tables, cleaning them up the proper way, which no one had done.

"Okay, everyone. Time to calm down." Scott walked in, sighing as he finished something up on his clipboard.

"Not 'til you tell us which one of them is your favorite!" the tattooed guy shouted , pointing at the animatronics on stage jokingly.

The look on Scott's face was priceless. Unentertained was putting it nicely. He looked at the idiots like they were...well, _idiots_. I tried my hardest not to laugh because then I'd get in trouble from _both_ parties in the room.

"No." he stated, standing there waiting for them to sit down at the tables and pay attention, but they refused. The usual buffoonery.

"Better tell us or we'll be here _allll evening_." the one with spiked hair laughed harder than ever.

Scott gave another sigh and then grumbled; " _Good Lord…_ "

He gave in and pointed over to the thing I had never been stationed near. Mostly because...it was out of order. I had no idea there was an animatronic there.

"Foxy." He smirked at them.

All of them laughed. "That thing is creepy as hell. It's been out of order for ages." One of them spouted.

I glanced over at Vincent who rolled his eyes at Scott, which I found odd. Looking over to Addie, who'd been equally disregarding the guys from the kitchen's ridiculousness, I caught her let a quick cute giggle escape when Scott had answered. Unfortunately, it hadn't gone unnoticed since Scott looked over to her and gave an unimpressed expression to her which made Addie blush since she'd been caught laughing at her superior.

"I didn't know there was an animatronic there." I expressed aloud, breaking my own awkward silence.

"Oh. Y-yeah, there's an animatronic there. Uhhh...it's in the Pirate's Cove. He used to be functional but, uh...yeah…" Scott turned his attention to me and tried to cover himself for not telling me about it, but he didn't really explain anything. "Long story." He winced, sounding annoyed.

"Are we getting to the meeting or not?" Vince groaned beneath his breath, somewhat quietly.

"Yes. If these idiots get over here." Scott sighed right back.

I noticed that he seemed to have the gall to talk back to creepy-ass Vincent like that. Vincent paid no mind to it, however, so we all just moved on once the guys from the kitchen came and sat over with the rest of us.

The meeting seemed to go on _forever_. This was the usual, but it was killing me inside. That was- until the night shift was briefly mentioned. Scott talked about covering for it for the next few nights until he found a new person for the shift since Vincent "Couldn't show up" anymore.

Yeah.

That set off Addie. Like _really set her off_ -

"Oh really?! Funny, didn't seem like Cynthia told me you were occupied with _her_ all those nights you didn't show up." She hissed.

Vincent's face contorted at her. "Okay _girly-girl_. Remind me, since _when_ did _you_ start hanging out with _my girlfriend?_ " he growled from across the room at her, still not breaking his calm stance.

"Hm _still no answer_. Perhaps you were at the bar?" Addie ignored his questioning and continued to prod him.

Vincent quit leaning against the wall now, and he uncrossed his arms. " _You don't know a damn thing about me like you think you do, Phonesy-girl_." he growled louder now. Carmen and I backed up a little bit and Scott looked like he wanted to die or something.

"Guys... _please not today…_ " He sighed, hitting himself in the head with the clipboard he'd been reading off of.

"You can't just keep leaving the night shift to other people. With the _badass_ you must think you are- why can't _you_ handle the damn shift?!" Adeline ignored Scott and continued on into a scream fest.

Everyone was practically eating popcorn now, watching the outbreak occur.

Vincent looked her up and down, grinning in a way that unsettled me. "Sounds like someone must be _awful educated_ on that _night shift_."

Carmen and I exchanged concerned glances. Was he _threatening her_ for _knowing something_? Even more intriguing- _did_ Addie _know something_?!

"Something really set her off about Scott taking the shift…" I whispered to Carmen. She nodded; "But she got angry about it before she told us she'd even look into it. Maybe she's just getting involved in shit she doesn't need to again." Carmen rushed in jumbled words under her breath to me.

"Maybe." I shrugged, but began to walk up to Addie, who was now in a returned threatening stance towards Vincent.

"Addie…" I grabbed her arm, pulling her away from the situation. "It's okay…" I told her.

" _NO IT_ _ISN'T_!" She shouted loudly now. " _WHEN ARE YOU GONNA START_ _TAKING RESPONSIBILITY,_ _VINCENT? HUH?!"_ She pulled herself from my grasp.

Suddenly I saw something in Vincent's face register. My heart sunk.

 _What the hell had triggered Addie to act this way?_ Thoughts rushed through my anxious mind.

His grin became contorted into a sickened anger. Now he really looked upset.

" _Responsibility_ , huh?" He walked up to Addie and got in her face. I tried to pull her back towards me, but he continued to stay in her face as I pulled her.

He was now not only in her face, but almost in _mine_. That was a sight I never wanted to see again. His silvery eyes glinted threateningly, and his left eye twitched like a maniac's would.

Addie, surprisingly, attempted to remain strong. She stood still, looking up and making eye contact with the tall, slouched figure.

"You might wanna watch out what you _threaten me and Cyn with_ unless you feel confident you and _Phonsey_ over here think you can _match us_." He hissed, words sharpening with each one he spoke. They cut like knifes into my goosebump, chilled skin. He turned sharply, his stare remaining on Addie as he walked past the trashcan, spitting into it angrily and walking out the door in a grumpy stance.

 _What the hell kind of threat was that_?

"God damn it. I'm such a failure." Adeline groaned to herself, randomly losing her strength, faltering so soon.

"What? What does he mean? What do _you_ mean? What the hell is-?!" My questions were cut off by Addie, grabbing my arm and giving me a glance that said to leave it alone. I quickly turned my stare elsewhere as Scott walked up to her.

" _What the hell are you doing?!_ " He yelled under his breath to her so no one else heard.

Everyone was making a racket, commenting and laughing at what they'd just seen 'crazy quiet guy' Vincent do.

I saw as Addie only responded to Scott by biting her lip and looking away from him, and making a face that made my heart sink a little lower. She seemed so defeated and angry at herself. It reminded me of her heart-to-heart talk with me. As soon as Scott saw this he gave a sigh to himself for getting angry at her in such a way. He ran his hand through his mousey brown hair and adjusted his glasses.

 _Who was to blame here_? I wondered to myself. Whatever had just taken place, both Addie and Scott seemed to feel guilty for it. Vincent, however, clearly did not.

"Okay, guys. Calm down." Scott groaned at everyone and motioned for them to either sit or chill out. "I'm still taking the night shift for the next few days until I find a new guy. It'll all work out. Just...everyone, calm down…" Scott said to everyone, but it sounded more like the last part was for Addie.

Adeline was, no doubt, now emotionally volatile. She looked on the verge of tears as Scott said this. She turned to him for a moment, looking like she wanted to say something...do something...but she recognized she'd done enough.

She turned away for a moment and I saw her try to calm herself down, wiping the few tears gathered in her eyes for just a moment as her emotions came crashing down.

"C'mere Addie." Carmen walked over to her and hugged her for a moment.

"I'm f-fine." Addie froze during the hug.

"No you aren't." Carmen shook her head, still attempting to comfort her.

The three of us walked over to the entrance of the bathrooms while Scott continued to calm down all the employees and talk to them.

Carmen and I wrapped an arm around Addie. Carmen placed a jacket on her.

"It's okay guys. It's just me being overbearing as usual. Seriously, I just took it too far this time." Adeline swore, wiping her eyes and making sure her makeup was still intact.

Carmen almost laughed at this. "Adeline Jensen." She stated her full name. "In all the time I have known you... _girl_ you have never _once_ admitted you took _anything_ too far!" she crossed her arms, smiling at her friend. "Tell us what's wrong. Why is Vincent all in your business?"

Addie took a moment and gave a sigh. "It's not Vince. It's...the damn restaurant. The damn night shift." she shook something from her mind. "It's nothing. You guys shouldn't get involved." she sighed and whispered to herself; " _I_ shouldn't have gotten involved."

I gave her a pat on the shoulder and checked her makeup for her. "It's okay. You don't have to tell us. But, Addie, it doesn't help to just burden yourself with everything. _You're_ not responsible for the night shift." I tried to use my best mom-voice, which I wasn't very good at since I was a bit younger than her. But either way, I thought I saw her appreciate it for just a moment when she gave me a small smile.

"Thanks but...not being responsible for it is what upsets me." She admitted. Something about this thought made her laugh at herself and shake her head once more. "It's dumb. I just...I need to.. _.I don't know_ …" she sighed, giving in to her own insecurities of being out of control.

"It's _Scott's_ problem. Scott, like you, has _no problem_ taking control of the situation." Carmen smiled, patting her as well.

Addie winced at this, looking like she wanted to comment on this too, but she looked too scared to say anything to Carmen for some reason. She really _was_ trying to keep all of this under lock and key.

We walked back over to the meeting, standing side-by-side to back each other up.

Once we'd made it out of the place I glanced over to find Addie talking to Scott again as I gathered my things. Almost everyone had left the building. Even from afar I could tell it was just Addie's usual ranting about Vincent, until she'd lost once more as Scott told her "No." again, and turned to look for something.

Addie stood still, looking at him for a moment. She hesitated, but then I could hear;

"What if _I_ take the shift then?"

She froze in place. Now I couldn't break my invasive stare from what was going on.

I'd been dying to know what the night shift was all about- and here it was just within my grasp and my best friend wouldn't even tell me. I had no problem invading the conversation if it meant I could figure it out.

I suddenly saw Scott turn and make a strange, confused face at Addie.

He shook his head. "No...you can't do it." he shook his head even more.

"Why not?" I could see her lips say.

"Why do you want to?" Scott spoke louder now, clearly thinking they were alone since I was leaned over, gathering my purse and things. I decided to stay hidden to listen in.

"...After what you saw it was like?"

"Then that just means I know how to do it." Addie stomped, sounding courageous.

"Adeline...you can't. It gets worse every night of the week and it's a _Friday_ today." I saw him shake his head, looking hysterical. He genuinely couldn't believe whatever Addie was offering.

The two awkwardly stood, staring at each other. Addie really didn't want to back down.

 _Why the fuck would she want to take that shift even in the first place?_

"Look...Adeline, I can understand why you want Vincent to do it instead of me. Because you hate him. But why the _hell_ would _you_ take the shift? That just continues to help Vincent. Not yourself." Scott shook his head at her, genuinely still looking puzzled. "What are you into paranormal stuff or something?" he laughed.

 _Paranormal stuff?_ My mind rushed. None of this added up. And had Addie somehow been on a night shift?

" _No…_ " she frowned, looking annoyed. "I'm not doing it to _get rid of_ freaking _Vincent_." she crossed her arms, sighing.

"Then…?" Scott stood, waiting for the _why_.

"I'm doing it to help _you_." She grumbled. "You've taken the night shift way too many times _plus_ day shift the next morning sometimes."

Scott continued to stand there and now he winced at her even more.

"Addie...this is like, uh...the _third_ or something time you've tried to cover for me." he scratched his head. "The first time I was _pretty sure_ it was just because you're an over controlling employee…"

" _Hey!_ ... _AND…?_ " Adeline crossed her arms, looking attacked.

"Well now you're trying to cover me from something _horrifying_ that I _know_ you hate…" He narrowed his stare on her and Addie broke into a blush.

"Uhhh….." Scott didn't seem to know what to say next.

"Um." Addie didn't either.

The two just stood there awkwardly, in complete silence.

"Y'know….I can't give you a raise." He said.

"I know." She puffed her cheeks, running her hand through her light brown hair.

" _I know you know_." he responded, narrowing his stare even more.

She looked away and waited for what was next to come. Suddenly her flushed cheeks and green eyes met mine.

 _Oops. I got caught._

I thought i'd get called out. Right there and then. But…

"L-look. When you're done with the night shift can you at least give me a call so I can know you're fine?" Addie's face was literally redder than I'd ever seen.

"S-sure…" he seemed even more confused now.

She wrote down her number on a piece of paper and handed it to him. "See you…" she waved, looking like she was going to pass out or something from heat exhaustion.

He waved to her and went back to the office. When the coast was clear, Addie motioned to me.

 _Man Addie sure knows how to keep guys on their toes!_ I laughed on the inside. Still, nothing could erase that I was busted and that Addie was _probably_ about to threaten me to keep quiet.

We both quietly walked out together, but the _second_ we were outside of the building-

" _How much did you hear?_ " she hissed to me.

"B-basically all of it." I nodded to her, letting her know she was screwed if she thought she was going to still keep me in the dark.

"You probably want to know about the night shift then, huh…." Addie sighed, holding her head like she had a headache.

I bit my lip and smirked real wide. "Actually...I was more interested in the _second half_ of the conversation."

Addie's eyes shot back open immediately and she turned to me like a mentally unstable person.

I got right to it.

"Do you...do you _like Scott_?" I tried not to laugh. This was just too good.

Adeline knew that I knew, so there was a mutual understanding which lead immediately to;

" _If you say anything to Carmen, so help me God...I will freaking strangle you._ "

I laughed out loud now.

Carmen had spent her time, energy, and jokes - day and night, to make sure she could practically _torture_ poor Addie with constant jokes and innuendos that she and Scott were together. How would she feel now, to know that it wasn't really an _insult_ to her, but rather an embarrassing secret. I laughed at the idea of Carmen finding out. She had to at one point or another, I supposed. How would she feel, knowing she wasted her energy making jokes about Addie and Scott and trying to find her some guy when _really_ she should have been using her energy to make jokes about Addie and some other guy and trying to get her to date Scott. The irony was too much.

Once I'd gathered myself, I took out my pinky and pinky swore to her that I wouldn't tell Carmen or Cynthia. Or Vincent.

"So why didn't you tell him back there just now?" I asked, smirking so wide. I thought about how she'd abandoned the poor helpless Scott with his horrible night shift and no answer as to whether Addie liked him.

Addie blushed profusely. "I-I dunno…" she scratched her head. "I was thinking that it was inevitable and that he was gonna say something because...well it was _obvious_ why I've been doing all this stuff for him. But then I saw you watching and…."

I shrugged "I get it."

"Now...what's up with the _night shift_?"


	8. The Night Shift

_Author's Note:_ Part 2 of Week 2 Update. A bit later than I meant, sorry! Thanks for reading. Read below for Week 3 Update schedule :)

This chapter is written in a different point of view but you _should_ be able to catch on to who it is pretty fast. Next week's update (the first half, at least) will _also_ be in another point of view other than Mabel's. By the way; some of you might notice "Mabel" is kind of a bland character. This is on purpose (ik i'm weird.) Basically I wanted a character that the reader could relate to because I didn't really want to write it as a "reader" fanfic. I want it to be more like a serious novel. But basically, Mabel is supposed to be what you want her to be! As weird as that sounds, she is meant to be a solid character with little to no thirst for mystery or thrills or adventure. Instead, she is supposed to be an ordinary person sucked into an environment which she has no control over and the reader has to watch her struggle while stuff around her happens that she can't do anything about. *insert 6AM sound* _YAAAAY!_ :D (i'm so sorry)

-cw

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

 **The Night Shift**

 _Yesterday_

"Well...here we go again." Scott gave a sigh, taking a seat in the giant comfy office chair. He looked like he was going insane or something. If the giant bags under his eyes weren't enough, he was starting to look paler (even more than normal, that is) and his bloodshot eyes looked like they would give in to the temptation of sleep any minute now. He silently wished that his employees were still there just to keep him awake and aware. Now was _not_ the night to be tired on. It was a Thursday night...well- technically a Friday morning now. Vincent had at least _sporadically_ been taking his shifts, which meant every now and then Scott would get some sleep. But for the last few days he'd only been getting three to four hours of sleep, at best, because he had to be at work the next day to keep everything organized and manage the employees.

"It's all part of being manager…" Scott groaned to himself, reminding himself that he'd signed up for it. At the very least, it was much better pay.

He grumbled to himself for a moment and sat back up in his seat, turning on the multiple screens in front of him which revealed camera footage of each room. He leaned back and adjusted the digital clock on the desk so he could see the time clearly. It seemed he had set everything up.

I breathed in, quiet as ever, trying to stay stealthy. I watched and wondered what in the world the whole set up even was for.

 _What is Scott watching?_ My mind wandered, thinking of all the possible reasons. I assumed that it was simply as we were told. Maybe I was being crazy in the first place.

Perhaps all the night shift was, _truly_ was just the Boss' orders to keep watch of the place from any robberies. Maybe Scott only wanted Vincent to call by the end of his shift just to really make sure that Vincent wasn't up to anything, as he had told me over the phone.

I watched as he tirelessly eyed each camera by switching through them on the small tv. I was surprised he wasn't _dozing off_. He looked so tired. So what was really keeping him from passing out?

In an instant, he flipped cameras, one of which had been viewing where the animatronics were kept backstage at night. Suddenly, I noticed something was... _off_.

 _Wasn't there three of them?_ I wondered, seeing the screen where the animatronics had all been.

Scott flipped to a camera and then…

I squealed. Okay...I _screamed_.

" _Eeeek!"_

If the Bonnie staring horrifyingly into the camera wasn't enough- my scream _reacting_ to the sight scared the _hell_ out of Scott.

He stood up quickly and the seat rolled away from him. He turned quickly to find me, sitting behind his chair on the ground. The various plushes and old things from prize corner I'd been using to hide myself with now lay around me.

"Um. Surprise?" I bit my lip. I didn't even have the gall to smile like Carmen or Mabel might do. I wanted to roll my eyes just thinking about how _they'd_ react to being caught snooping.

The second he saw me he gave a sigh of relief, which was weird because I thought he'd be insanely mad.

"Oh...it's just you." He sighed, breathlessly.

"W-what did you think I was-?" I glanced at the screen showing the purple rabbit in the camera. "Oh. One of those." I blushed deep red; "S-sorry…"

He lent his hand to me and pulled me up.

"Why are you here?!" He asked, now slightly furious. After asking, he quickly returned to his chair and checked all of the cameras, giving another sigh of relief.

"I wanted to figure out what the night shift _really_ was." I groaned, standing courageously for a moment to defend myself. "I've been asking for _years_ now and-"

"SO _THIS_ WAS HOW YOU DECIDED TO FIGURE OUT?!" He yelled, sounding panicked. I stopped in my tracks for a moment. Scott was _seriously_ freaked out.

"You know what? Fine, whatever...I'll leave. It's not like I'm a _loyal employee_ or anything and you won't even _tell me_ what our shifts are…." I sighed and gave in angrily, knowing I should probably leave before I got fired or something even though I was mad at him.

 _I'm furious!_ I thought to myself; _All this time and effort I put into the company- NO... into_ _helping Scott_ _\- and he won't even tell me what is going on!_

As I moved towards the door on the right I felt a firm grasp on my wrist that pulled me back; "NO WAIT."

I turned to see the panicked expression on his face. This time it was rushed panic rather than the jittery mess sort of panic he was earlier trying to watch the cameras just five minutes ago.

"Y-you can't leave!" He pleaded.

I looked at him strangely. I had no clue how to react to this at all. He looked like he had no clue how to respond, too, which only confused me more. He seemed desperate.

"You gotta listen- they'll _KILL YOU_ if they see you at this hour!" He begged me. "That's why I haven't let you take the night shift!" He tugged desperately at my wrist some more. I still stood there, staring at him in total confusion.

I began to giggle. As I bit my lip, I realized I couldn't hide it and a full-on laugh escaped my lips.

"Scott that's _ridiculous_! Don't be silly." I blushed at the awkward moment that had now occurred.

Here I was 12 at night at my stupid job, being begged by my manager to stay away from where I walked every day because some animatronics would _kill me_.

When I saw that his face was still serious while he still clung to my wrist, I took a moment to glance at the camera which remained on the backstage where the animatronics stayed at night.

"Well...they are a bit _terrifying_ …" I commented, sighing. "But there's no way they'll _kill_ me, right?"

His eyes still looked panicked and desperate; he took a deep breath before telling me; " _We've had to cover up multiple incidents at this place…_ " He admitted, shuddering.

I stopped breathing. His face was entirely serious. Scott _did_ know any company secrets we might have because he was practically a slave to our Boss…

He still clung to my wrist. _And_ Scott would never make this much employee "physical contact" normally because of some insane company rule to prevent getting sued or in trouble for sexual harassment or something…

His breathing was irregular now and his bloodshot eyes were wide open. _And also_ Scott _never_ went more than a sentence or two without stuttering or gaping with an "Uhhhh" or "y'know" because of how awkward he normally was…

"Oh my God…" I stood still, pulling my arm out of his grasp and gasping to myself. "You're _really serious_ …" I put my hand over my heart.

" _This is why you won't let me take the night shift?!_ " I asked loudly as he recognized I would stay and not leave, making him return to checking the cameras.

He gave a rushed but serious nod. "YES!" He practically shouted. I'd never seen him this way.

"But Vincent…" I wondered aloud.

"Don't care about _him_." Scott commented, grumbling, and giving reason for why he let _him_ take the shift.

"But me…" I gaped.

Scott turned his head for a moment, blushing. "I-I, uhhh...don't want any of the girls to have to do it. It'd freak them out. Probably even _Carmen_." He gave his reasoning.

"Right." I agreed, lying. I found it impossible to see _Carmen_ being scared of even something freaky and unexplainable as aggressive animatronics. Mabel probably would be horrified, though.

He was lying again and I think he could tell I knew.

"But you let _yourself_ take the shift?" I whined, wondering what kind of ridiculous psychopath would inflict such a horror like this on themselves just to keep me or Mabel from doing it.

"I'm the manager and trainer. Getting the shift taken care of is _my_ job. I'm not gonna force _you_ to do this just because I'm lousy at my job." He grumbled, hating that I was asking him more and more.

"But I _offered_. You wouldn't be forcing me." I blushed.

He blushed back, still checking the cameras as I took a seat next to him.

"You didn't know the actual risks when you offered." He excused.

"Vincent didn't either, right?" I fought. I really wanted to know why all this was the way it was.

He gave no answer, and I could tell he wasn't going to tell me so I just moved on, giving a sigh.

"Alright. So how the _hell_ do you end your shift without getting 'killed'?" I asked him "And why don't they attack us during the day if this is all true?"

He gave me some long explanation for why they did so. Something about a 'free roaming mode' they go into at night and how they only seem to act strange around the adults and not children. I myself had noticed a similar strange pattern, but before I'd only figured it was my fear of their weird robotic faces that made me feel that way.

"You have to promise me something, and I know it's gonna be difficult-" Scott finally sighed and looked away from the camera for a moment.

I wondered really what it was he was going to ask of me. All I knew was it wasn't going to be fun, whatever it was.

"Promise you wo-" he stopped for a moment in the middle of his sentence.

"Did you hear that, too?" I asked, thinking I heard a rustling sound in the hallway to our left.

I stopped alongside him and listened for a moment, the tapping on the floors ended and Scott gave a quick breath in as he flicked a light on.

" _AHHHH_!" I shrieked like a little girl.

Right in the doorway was that purple bunny, giving us a terrifying, dead-eyed stare, it's mouth slightly agape.

Scott slammed a button making the door shut and we waited until it was gone when he opened it again, making me still on edge.

 _He was not kidding…_

I realized I was leaning on him slightly since I'd been scared so I leaned back away and bit my lip, apologizing; "Sorry."

"Uhhh...anyways...you have to promise you won't tell anyone else. _Especially_ if they work here." He stated seriously. The reasons explained themselves.

Who would want to work here if something like _that_ happened at night? More so, how would someone keep their mouth shut about it. Even more- who would even think I was sane for talking about animatronics wanting to kill people at night?

"I promise." I nodded, looking him in the eyes after taking a moment.

He trusted me.

After 6 hours of closing doors and flashing the lights on and off to conserve power, I cursed my Boss' name.

"Damn cheapskate…" I groaned.

We left at six AM, although I was hesitant to feel safe just because the number on some digital clock said "6:00", but Scott walked out first for me and slowly guided me out like a gentleman.

 _Well now you know what the night shift is, Addie. Are you happy now?_

I wanted to punch myself.

 _This is why I strictly tell myself to never snoop. Especially in Boss or Scott's secrets about this place_.

Deep down, I still wondered what lead to the animatronics being this way, in reality. And I wondered even more what scandals had been covered up about the place, but after _that_ experience- I knew not to snoop.

 _Still...Scott definitely trusts you now. He might tell you more if you asked_.

I shook my head to myself.

 _Only if he tells you without asking. No more getting involved_. I decided.

Even deeper down- there was now only one thing about the whole ordeal that concerned me; and that was Scott taking the night shift. Every night he did that, not only did he get screwed by Vincent and had little to no sleep...but he also was in _danger_. My heart sank at the stress he was under all the time that I'd barely even been able to grasp until now.

 _I have to stop this somehow._

I gave a groan at myself for feeling like I had to get involved again as I walked outside the restaurant to see the dark-bluish beautiful sky just before the sun rose to put the sky in a much brighter hue.

"Well…" I sighed to Scott. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow." I smiled slightly, feeling guilty that I'd gotten myself into this which probably only stressed Scott out more since, apparently, his goal had been to keep me away from the shift.

"And...I'm sorry for snooping." I apologized.

"It's okay...I can understand you wanted to know what was going on...y'know…" He blushed at my kindness and scratched his head.

"Uhhh...see ya tomorrow." He waved at me as well and I gave him a small smile.

We parted ways and each went in the direction of our cars.

* * *

"WHAT?!" Mabel screeched, pulling on her hair.

 _And now I've broken my promise to Scott…_ My heart sank even more on the inside.

"Mabel you have to keep quiet, though. I _promised_ to Scott. Didn't you hear?" I sighed, knowing this was a bad choice already telling her the story. My cheeks were flushed red at the idea of Scott thinking I'd broken my promise to him.

"Oh no, of course I won't tell him." Mabel laughed, giving her innocent small smile and pushing her brunette hair out of her face. " _I don't wanna ruin you guys' relationship._ " She smirked, leaning forward.

" _Ughhh_ …" I blushed even redder now, turning away from her.

In retrospect, I regretted letting her figure _that_ out, too. I crossed my arms and closed my eyes in embarrassment even though Mabel couldn't see my face, anyways.

"We're not in a relationship I just have a... _crush_ on him." I didn't know how to word it. I felt childish, saying I had a crush on someone. Especially since I hadn't been on dates in ages, and I'd been such a loner loser for a while now…

"Yeah, I know. It's okay. We'll get you two together." Mabel smiled, channeling her inner Carmen.

 _That girl spends way too much time observing that lunatic._

I spun around; "What exactly do you mean by 'we'?!" I hissed.

"Nooothin'." Mabel sang slightly.

Even though she played around, I knew she'd keep my secret. Like Scott trusted me- I could trust _her_. Even though I'd...technically done something Scott shouldn't trust me for just now.

Mabel was a quiet, observer type. And she'd been so nice when I'd opened up to her. I knew she'd keep it a secret.

The question was whether _I_ could keep it a secret, since apparently I wasn't doing so well with secrets lately…

"Oh, well. Hey at least out of all this craziness we got to see Vincent lose his sanity for a second!" I laughed aloud, Mabel nodded, joining in.

"Hopefully you haven't broken your friendship with Cynthia now because of that…" Mabel smirked.

" _We are not friends._ " I balled up my fists just thinking about that girl.

Mabel just gave a shrug along with her smile.

"Wonder what those two are up to right now…" Mabel pondered for a second.

I shook my head, putting my hands in the air at the grandeur of unwanted mystery about those two;

"Who knows what those two _freaks_ are up to _normally,_ even?!"

* * *

 **2 Part WEEK 3 UPDATE BY/BEFORE NEXT TUE (august 9th)**

this time both parts will be posted ON that day unless part 1 is posted earlier than tuesday, then part 2 will still be on or before tuesday


	9. The Freaks

_Author's Note:_ Week 3 2-chapter update here! These chapters are smaller but that's why I had two chapters this week. Also- I think I prefer shorter chapters sometimes. I dunno, I feel like it's easier to read. Why make a bunch of run-on topics? This update is like an hour late...I'm sorry lol. Also WARNING: there is drug use and violence in this chapter.

Not really any gore though. Trust me. That's later.

 **Thanks for the review BabySealLover!** :) Yes the pace should pick up from here and after chapter 11 it will pick up even faster. These next two chapters plus next weeks will be fast paced in terms of some of the story, but all the connections will line up starting with chapter 12 a lot faster. Thanks for reviewing! :D

-cw

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

 **The Freaks**

"That _fucking_ girl better keep her mouth shut if she knows anything…" He grumbled low and angrily.

 _He's in his grumpy mode…_ I groaned to myself.

I drove out of the darkly lit parking lot, the lights just dimly glowing enough to see the dark beyond of patchy grass and suburban neighborhoods in the distance.

"It's okay, Vincie-" I stated plainly, knowing he'd pay no mind anyways.

"AGH THAT GIRL AND THAT STUPID MANAGER-PHONE-BOY ARE SO ANNOYING!" He ignored me, ranting on to himself and freaking out. He sent a fist into the door on his right. I was used to driving with a high stress environment taking place to my right. Vince was always freaking out about stuff in general that pissed him off- but this time he was _really_ angry about Addie, who only seemed to be a minor annoyance before today.

"Wait... _knows anything_ about _what_?" I rose my voice now, leaning to get a look at his face.

"Nothin- just some stupid shit I did awhile back. Just keep driving. I wanna go home and we're gonna get so fucked up tonight." Vince spouted angrily. His black hair hanging slightly loose in his face, all the way to just below his chin hair.

His face looked so pale and his skin was entirely porous...he seemed worn out and stressed.

"I know...you're making _me_ wanna get messed up, too. But aren't you forgetting something?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

He slowly turned to face me, his silver pupils twitching at the thought.

"FUCKIN'. JOSÉ." He stated loudly. I gave a nod and a sigh as I drove through the dark gravel and pulled up to our beat-down gray complex. Sure it was ugly and scary and dark as hell...but I loved it, because it was where Vincent and I lived and that was all I needed.

As I began to turn the ignition key Vincent grabbed my wrist. "No. Stop. Drive us to their place." He requested.

I gave a groan. "Vince...do you _really_ wanna deal with that shit _tonight_? You _already_ seem on edge. Let's just drink."

"No. We're going to their stupid apartment downtown." He stated. I decided not to question any further and just drove to the ratty old place downtown where a couple of guys we knew were.

Once we pulled up to the salmon brick building with worn red doors, I noticed there were cars _everywhere_. No doubt they would know it was us pulling in, since there was a purple car joining the lot. That is, if they were keeping lookout for the place.

I mumbled something beneath my breath and then stepped out of the car alongside Vincent. We walked right into the cramped apartment since there was clearly a block party going on and no one was checking people.

There were black lights everywhere and the pounding bass of the music pumped in my chest like adrenaline. I got a look at some of the people who shot glances to us. Staying closer to Vincent, I found us approaching a hallway which had a couple of practically knocked out and drunk or high people half-asleep on the floor. Except for one man left standing, a short but sturdy bald man with tattoos all around his neck and a couple of messed up front teeth. Yep. It was José.

"Hey there _José_." Vincent uttered, his left eye twitching slightly as he moved in.

José turned his head to see Vincent, automatically making his eyes widen.

"Oh shi- h-hey Vincie…" he tried to play it off. He scratched his neck awkwardly and reached out a hand. Vincent slapped it away.

"Don't call me that." Vincent growled, his slender body slightly hunched and towering over the short but tough man.

"Let's go have a chat, huh, _friend_?" Vincent threatened, baring his teeth at him and giving him a wide-eyed angry smile that sent chills down the man's spine.

I could tell it scared him, and it made me giggle inside. I smiled warmly at Vince's face as he intimidated the guy.

"I ain't your friend, Vince. We both know you ain't got no friends." José hissed, getting in his face.

"Awh you should really be nicer to the kids around here, José. You might hurt their feelings." Vince taunted, still smiling, just on the brink of laughing.

"Fine. I'll come _talk_ …" He groaned, leading us to the bathroom.

We closed the door behind us and I leaned on the white-wood door, crossing my arms as I watched intently.

"You've met my girlfriend, Cyn." He introduced me even though we'd met before.

"How ya doin', cutie?" José asked me, attempting to charm. I rolled my eyes.

"Ain't _no way_ you got that girl without holding her captive." He commented, turning to Vince and laughing.

I just chewed my gum real loud after the comment, looking unamused at him.

"Funny. Jokes are over. _Now where the fuck is my dope_?" Vincent hissed, getting in the man's face, still smiling creepily.

The guy made a motion for him to back up but Vincent only backed up just slightly.

"Calm down. I'll get you your fuckin' dope. But you two _know_ he told me not to sell to you no more after that last big problem you caused." The guy got sassy with us. "Real great stunt by the way. Bullying the boss' son and almost killing him. Remember that? _Yeah_." He squinted his eyes.

"Well how about I turn that _big_ problem into a little one by _slitting your fucking throat just for the fun of it_ and taking the dope anyways?" Vincent's voice became his raspy loudness again like he was when he was angry, except now it was more concentrated and less tense.

"You really think that'll be _less_ of a problem?" José winced for a moment, trying to act cool and calm, but I could tell he was horrified.

"Oh boy. Here's an even _better_ question; you _really think_ that _I,_ of all the people you know, would have a _problem_ getting rid of _your_ fuckin' body with barely any evidence to piece together?" Vincent almost whispered now, smiling his evil grin and getting right in José's ugly face. José couldn't hide it now. He winced and backed away, giving in.

"Okay okay man- here's your shit. Just leave me alone from now on, okay?! I don't wanna get involved with you the same way all those other motherfuckers did." He pulled out a box and threw it into Vince's hand.

"Thankyou. Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" Vince hissed as we strutted out of the place.

I knocked through people, making them turn their heads in anger at me which made me cackle.

"Ugh." Vince groaned as he flung himself onto the passenger seat. "Was really hoping I was gonna get to _off_ him." He moaned disappointedly.

"Same...but it'd have been impossible to get away with." I huffed at him.

" _Hell no_ it wouldn't have." Vincent swore up and down as I turned the ignition key and started up the car.

There was a good silence for a minute or two as I drove through some of the less fortunate, dark, downtown streets on our way home.

I heard Vincent breathe in unevenly;

"You know what, though?"

"Hm?" I turned my head, pulling my long hair out of my face.

"I don't feel like getting high, now." He admitted.

I had a puzzled face aimed at him, for sure; "Then what is it you want?

He made a face at me which made me pull off the road and stop the car.

"You wanna-?" He signed a cross across his neck.

I raised an eyebrow; "Where at, though?"

"The bar we met?" He offered, smirking.

"How romantic." I joked, but still smirking back.

I said nothing else and turned around, changing the destination away from home once more. The bar looked just as ugly as the day we met which made me smile every time I saw it.

Vincent told me to stay in my seat as we arrived and he jokingly opened the door for me like a gentleman.

We cackled like idiots, but calmed down by the time we entered the place. After scouting it out, we found an older guy who looked sleazy and like he was part of some biker gang. Hells Angels or something.

It wasn't too hard to let him buy me a drink and tell him to follow me to the car. Vincent had already snuck out to the car.

I opened the doors and we drove off.

"Where we goin'?" The biker asked, smiling beneath his silver-patched beard.

"Mmm...nowhere." I giggled; "Somewhere private." I shrugged. The man was excited by this, and extremely drunk.

Once we reached a lookout point on an old highway, I turned to him.

The biker almost leaned in when Vincent popped up from the back seat.

"Havin' fun?" He cackled.

"AGH!" The guy ran out of the car. I laughed maniacally and stepped out of the car as well.

"Wh-whose he?!" The man slurred.

"Her boyfriend." Vincent closed in on the guy.

"L-look, man…." The guy backed up and fell down from his drunkenness. "I don't...I can't….I…"

Vincent just laughed at the guys horrible excuse which didn't matter anyway. None of it was real. I'd just _baited_ the guy for us. Vince slipped out his knife which just barely shined from the glow of the city which the look out gave view of from above.

The guy began to plead and my face lit up.

The next fifteen minutes or so could only be described as a blur of fun, blood, crying in agony, and pleading.

Sure, maybe it was fucked up. But this was how Vincent and I got our kicks. It was what we enjoyed, no matter how much the world would hate us for it. It was what bound us together in the first place.

The night we met… _I_ was his victim. The same way we had victimized that biker not too long ago. Except when he lured me; I laughed at him because it was incredibly obvious. I revealed to him that it was a hobby of mine, too. Me? I didn't _kill_ for fun. At least not _then._ I did hurt them, though. I enjoyed seeing people in their weakest moment. In pain and agony. Crying and pleading for mercy. Vincent liked that, too, and ever since I proved that I truly enjoyed it as well, we'd been together.

Vincent and I were closer than anyone had been in my life. My dumb ass sister was just as straight laced and cutesy as that annoying Adeline.

She'd done a good job finding a guy who was going to make money. Her and my mother both; they always doubted me.

' _There's something wrong with her_ ' I could hear my mom saying to my dad, in secret.

 _Huh. Well screw them._

After disposing of the evidence, we drove home and got high off of some of the dope we got.

"Today was so fun…" I smiled, laying my head on his chest.

"Of course it was." Vincent responded, clutching me closely in the darkness of our bedroom.

I clung to his lanky body. "It didn't _start_ that way for you...why _was it_ that you were worried about Addie, again?" I asked, feeling a little sick now.

"Worried? I ain't worried about nothin'. Not in this town. You and I _own_ this fuckin' town." Vincent laughed like some drunken idiot. "It's me and you versus the world, babe."

"Yep. Sure is." I simply sighed happily and we fell asleep in our own mess of an apartment.


	10. The Boss

**Week 3 Update part 2**

* * *

 **Chapter 10**

 **The Boss**

 _Another day, another nightmare._ I thought to myself, looking into my car mirror as I took a minute in the parking lot to calm myself down.

I couldn't believe what Addie had told me about the night shift. The funny thing is, any _sane_ person would never believe a word she said; but the fact that Addie looked like she could barely believe it _herself_ made me realize she was telling the truth. At least to some extent.

 _Who knows what lies or incorrect bits Scott had told her on purpose._ I thought to myself. _After all, he'd proven to be a liar when it came to most of the company so far._

I gave a huge sigh that made my shoulders fall what felt like ten feet. Not only had I gotten involved, which I told myself not to do, but I also had learned something that actually made me dread my job even more and made me feel like I could trust no one at this restaurant.

I convinced myself, for just a moment, that the whole thing was just a huge prank Addie was playing on me to get revenge for me listening in on her secret conversation, and with that I exited my beat-down blue car.

I slammed the door and shifted awkwardly over to the white building with red letters, opening the glass door to the nightmarish land known as Fazbear's.

It was only 11:30 AM on a Saturday and the place was already filled to the brim with kids running rampant. I was 30 minutes early to my weekend afternoon shift. I guess Addie had brainwashed me into being a good employee. Of course Addie was already there. Vincent was standing in a corner watching the kids in a way that would get anyone kicked out if they didn't work there watching kids _normally_.

I shuffled into the building and gave a groan.

Nope. Addie was lying. There's nothing spooky about this place. It's just _boring_.

I looked over to the stage where Freddy and his friends sang to the kids. I shivered a little at the idea of them chasing me.

 _Something straight out of a horror film_. I laughed to myself.

Addie took a call over the phone at the prize corner which I observed from afar as I took a seat to chill out since Vincent was on my shift right now. She immediately seemed puzzled as she flipped through the pages of the calendar which our restaurant used to keep track of events.

I saw her put the phone on hold and walk over to Scott from across the room with the textbook sized calendar.

Leaning on the white wall, across the room, was Scott looking disheveled and barely awake, sipping on coffee. His sleeves were rolled up, his shirt was slightly open at the top, and his hair wasn't brushed all nicely like he usually had it when he didn't have to take three shifts in a row or something insane.

I saw him take a deep breath as if to wake himself up and then he stood up once he saw Addie approach him. I could hear the conversation since I was sitting in the dining area.

"There's...x's here?" Addie asked, pointing to a week on the calendar.

"Y-yeah...I dunno why, to be honest. Why?" Scott shrugged, looking just as confused.

"Well does it have something to do with the holiday before or…? Um, I'm asking because someone was trying to reserve a birthday." She finally explained, realizing she wasn't getting to the point.

I turned around now.

 _Oh hell no… Do_ _not_ _mess up a potential holiday, Addie._ I thought to myself.

Scott took the calendar and brought it into the room that was supposedly the owner's personal office. He had the key to it, but the office wasn't all that private or anything.

There were windows revealing the entirety of it which was simply a black desk with some papers and a couple things on it. Behind the desk was a few plain filing cabinets. I watched for only a couple moments since he looked like he was doing boringly tedious work comparing the calendar with another one in there plus something in the small computer system we had.

I leaned back in my chair and shook my head at Addie who stood outside looking confused. She turned to see me and walked over, taking a seat.

"You're early again!" She smiled at me.

I gave a nod; "I caught on to your routine."

"Isn't it great?" Addie smirked, flipping her short light-brown hair comically.

"No." I laughed at her. "Now I'm just sitting here doing nothing. God forbid if Vincent finds out I'm here early- he'll probably try to leave the rest of his shift to me if he sees me." I whispered.

Addie nodded. "Oh, I'll keep quiet then."

"So what's going on with the whole calendar thing over there?" I pointed to the office.

Addie shrugged; "Some guy called me to reserve a Birthday for his son but we had an unlabeled mark on the day and the rest of that week."

Just as she began to go on about how annoying it was when people marked the calendar without labeling it, Carmen walked in through the restaurant doors and moseyed on over to us, greeting us with a wave.

"Hey. Wassup, girls?" She grinned and sat down next to us. "Uh oh. Don't tell me you've adopted _Addie's_ schedule." She commented on my early presence.

I shook my head and laughed. "Well I wasn't as early as her but pretty close, I think."

"Ummm...I was even earlier, today. Because Scott had to take another shift so…" Adeline almost cringed at herself.

"You covered for it again." Carmen and I filled in, in unison.

We laughed at our accuracy, though, after she nodded to confirm. Adeline filled in _all the time_. Carmen wasn't joking when she said Addie's life was her job. But I knew the even _deeper_ reason why she'd covered so many of Scott's shifts. I giggled on the inside at the thought.

"Hopefully I can reserve this Birthday. I don't wanna annoy this random guy after making him wait." Addie sighed to herself.

Carmen smiled wide at us.

"Okay guys. Y'know something?" She began.

"What?" I asked, wanting to know what this was going to turn into.

"I think that sleepover we had was pretty fun. Let's have another one. I'm gonna be _so_ _bored_ this week." She proposed.

Addie gave a groan and gave in; "I suppose I don't have anything to do, either."

"Okay!" I cheered, smiling. As crazy as it was, the sleepover we'd had was probably the most fun thing I'd done in awhile compared to the boredom of my college dorm.

We heard the door to the Owner's office open up and Scott walked over to us.

"Ladies- _the boss_ is on a roll." He stated, placing the calendar down proudly and showing Addie. The thing now was marked in red pen which showed whatever he'd rearranged. It looked... _intense_.

Since when was scheduling so difficult?

"Haha, very funny, Scott. You're not the boss." Carmen smirked, toying with him.

" _Hey_...I'm _your_ boss." He groaned at her, looking slightly annoyed at the disrespect he got around here. It made me laugh a little on the inside.

"Thanks. This makes my life so much easier." Addie sighed in relief, looking at the schedule.

"But wait- by the way it's rearranged it shows…. _the Boss is checking in on us today_?" Addie looked back up to Scott whose face dropped, changing dramatically from the proud face he had due to all the work he'd done fixing the calendar.

" _No_...but...oh...you're right….umm...uhh…." Scott did a double take of the schedule. He facepalmed and looked like he was going to die.

"Be right back…" He bolted but then stopped before running off; "Make sure Vincent is out of here _soon_. Do _not_ let the boss see him doing his shift terribly...you're _much_ better at it." He told me.

"And _you- get to your shift._ " He pointed, ordering Carmen.

"And _you_ …" He pointed to Addie which instantly interested me. He literally never told her what to do because she did it without him asking her. "Uhhhhh...y-you keep doing what you do or whatever." His face got red and he ran off.

" _What's up with him?_ " Carmen almost burst out laughing, but she genuinely looked slightly concerned.

"You think he'll be okay?" Addie bit her nail, watching him run off in a panic.

Carmen rolled her eyes; "Oh, Addie." She patted her shoulder. "He'll _never_ be okay." She joked, walking off to attend to her shift as ordered. I laughed my head off at Carmen's joke which Addie did _not_ find funny at all. Adeline gave me a glance that pierced me for a second and she sighed, walking back to the prize corner to call back about the Birthday.

I gave a groan and followed my manager's orders, getting up from the booth and leaving the dining area. I stumbled over to the arcade area and stage where all the kiddos ran around while Vincent stood back and kept watch, leaning against the wall nearby the trash can where Carmen always hung out at the end of the day.

Once he saw me walking up to him he sort of winced and seemed confused. His eye twitched a little.

" _What?_ " He hissed under his breath.

 _Geez...way to be welcoming._ I snorted to myself.

"Um...I'm taking over your shift. You can go home early, now." I tried to be nice. _Kill him with kindness_. I repeated to myself in my mind, convincing myself it would work to keep from getting angry with him. I did _not_ want to be in Addie's volatile position with him. It looked scary from the small view I got just yesterday.

He actually seemed... _confused_. I guess no one here is nice to him like that ever.

His face actually got a little red at first because of the surprise I could see on his face, but then it quickly changed to a face of mistrust.

"... _Why?_ " He asked, standing up now instead of leaning.

I gave a shrug. "Apparently the Boss is checking in today and um…"

 _Don't tell him it's because he does his job bad, idiot._

"...Scott doesn't want me standing around early, so...It's my bad, kinda." I tried to take blame. Anything to not be suspicious to him…

"'Kay." He still kept his eyes on me, wincing at me constantly as he slowly walked out of the restaurant.

 _Oh-kay then, weirdo…Man he does_ _not_ _trust me._

I wondered to myself if he really trusted _anyone_ , but then decided it wasn't really worth thinking about since he was a creep anyways.

I took shift and ran around, cleaning up the mess Vincent hadn't been paying attention to. Kids fighting...food on the floors...all sorts of things. Of course, there was always the stray crying kid who _didn't_ like the animatronics.

I moaned. This job never got easy. And it never got interesting. Except for the occasional hilarious things that happened due to our... _eccentric_ work space and employees.

As if on queue, suddenly the front doors opened to reveal a tall, staunch figure wearing a suit. He had thinning hair and he was smoking a cigar, reading something when he walked in.

 _That has_ _got_ _to be the Boss_.

Scott came running in from across the room to greet him. He was all over the place like a hamster on coffee. As he frantically greeted his boss, I began to purposely take care of stuff nearby the door where the arcades were to hear what was being said.

The Boss was laughing heartily at Scott.

"Scott you always get everything done, calm down. This is why you were relocated here. I knew you'd be able to take care of the place." The Boss patted him on his shoulder.

" _Relocated?_ " A voice spoke behind me.

I jumped back "AGH!" I spun around and saw Addie, standing looking confused.

"Sorry...did I scare you?" She laughed a little, putting her hand over her mouth and giggling cutely.

"You're listening in, too?" I just laughed it off.

She nodded; "You know _me_. I just _have_ to know the details of everything here." she rolled her eyes at herself, referencing her run in with the night shift.

"Y-yeah. Scott mentioned working at another location, didn't he?" I recalled.

She shook her head; "Not to _me_." she shrugged. "What'd he say about it? Why'd he have to change?"

I just shrugged back. "You're the one who filled me in on the fact that this company had a _history_ just yesterday. He only mentioned it."

"Damn it." She groaned to herself, hitting herself in the head.

I made a puzzled face. "You okay?"

"Yeah it's just...I told myself to stay out of it. But I keep wanting to know more." Addie gave a big sigh and leaned on one of the arcade machines. I stopped eyeing Scott and the Boss' conversation and turned to Addie.

"Why don't you just _ask him_?" I laughed aloud, smiling. "I'm sure he'd tell you. It's not like it has to do with anything about _the company_."

"You think?" Addie looked doubtful of that fact. She walked off and began to return to work but as she passed by the stage I noticed the way she strayed away after wincing at the animatronics. I turned to see Scott notice the same even in the midst of his conversation with the Boss. Scott cringed at her getting slightly frightened.

"And is this the new employee?" The Boss changed subjects with him and moved on over to me, offering his hand. I shook it and smiled.

"Mabel, sir."

"Nice to meet you." he shook my hand and they moved on.

I could tell Scott was stressing out about everything looking okay and in correct order.

To lessen his stress I made sure to do everything right.

Everything seemed to be going fine until...a _minor incident_.

 _Why today?_ I moaned to myself.

I turned to see a kid crying just below the stage at Freddy. Addie moved on over to him and tried to cheer him up.

Despite her type-A personality, she seemed to be so good with children. She knelt down and cheered the kid up enough to start asking him what was wrong. The mother was appreciative of Addie calming him down. The kid couldn't get his point across but I was noticing his hand pointing in the direction of... _Pirate's Cove?_

I remembered the employees talking about how that section was abandoned. That there was an animatronic there. There was still a sign there stating "OUT OF ORDER" in black print.

I wondered why the kid was pointing in that general direction, so I did the brave thing and checked it out.

Wandering over there, I pushed through the purple star-printed curtains to reveal a creepy fox animatronic. I yelped and jumped back. If it's single-lit eye wasn't creepy enough there was…

 _Something moving beneath my knees_.

I ran back for a moment and looked down to see…

"Hey there kiddo!" I giggled, grabbing him.

There was a kid there. Not too much younger than the boy who'd been pointing this direction. I gave a sigh of relief.

 _Did I really believe in Addie's crazy story for a moment there?_

So maybe the animatronics looked a little creepy...but that was okay, right? Sometimes the kids thought so, too. It was just one of those things…

Not _haunted_ robots. What a silly notion.

I led the kid back to Addie and the other older kid.

The older kid greeted him. It was his brother. Addie looked up at me in wonder and thankfulness.

Apparently while I was gone, the kid had drawn even more attention. By the time I had come back and solved the problem, even the Boss was paying attention.

Scott stood back looking like he wanted to rip his own hair out due to stress.

"Good job, girl! Looks like you saved the day." the Boss laughed in good fun and patted me on my shoulder. Scott gave a sigh of relief and Addie smiled at me before standing back up.

Some few minutes ago I'd been the "new kid" and now I was the star employee? I wasn't so sure I was comfortable with this.  
Addie would definitely be jealous. And that girl was _already_ on edge.

The Boss left after he'd checked on everything and every room, giving each of us a sigh of relief.

By the end of the day, everyone gave me a pat on the back before leaving for being the "savior". Even Scott formally thanked me in front of everyone, which rarely happened since Addie did favors all the time but no one ever said anything about it. It felt good to be appreciated, for once, at least.

Once I was prepared to leave, some of the lights were off. I eyed the animatronics for just a moment and shook my head.

 _Stupid notion. They aren't possessed. This place isn't_ _haunted_. I walked off to my car, relieved to have the day over with, but horrified thinking of the violence that would ensue during this upcoming sleepover between Cynthia and Adeline.

 _Well at least I have something to hold over Addie's head. Maybe I can_ _threaten_ _her into being civilized._ I laughed at my own evilness. _What a great idea. Then maybe we can have a peaceful evening_.

* * *

 **WEEK 4 UPDATE BY/BEFORE NEXT TUE (august 16th)**

the next chapter will be much longer than the last few :) thanks for taking your time to read my dumb stuff haha and please do review!


	11. Understanding

_Author's Note:_ **Week 4 Update** here! Yes- a week late. I lied about the release day. Why? Because this chapter turned out to be a fucking abomination at first! Seriously if you knew the extent to which I had to fix stuff just because I tried writing without drinking caffeine and made an error...IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STORY! Yeah I went back and felt like I had just totally glossed over what ended up being like an extra 4 to 5 pages and, honestly, the focus of the chapter. So here's the thing- if you don't like the whole Adeline x Phone Guy plot like I'm _SUPPPERR sorry_ haha! The reason it (and all the other arcs) exists is all to tie in for the end and set the platform for which the actual story (yes this is a prequel) takes place in. It'll all make sense, I promise.

Oh. And the part I _didn't_ lie about is that this is the longest chapter by far. This is more like a _normal novel's_ small-average chapter size. About 14 pages in 11pt font on Google Docs. Thanks for reading! And follow this for weekly updates if you're reading. Please comment any thoughts, too :) **QUESTION-** (hopefully someone will answer?) I am still trying to balance the dialogue-to-description ratio. I am bad with this because I can either A) stay too much in the characters head for TOO long to the point where it's boring af OR B) end up writing what looks like an effing script and not a piece of writing. So as far as this chapter goes- **do you guys think I am getting better with balance? Tell me if it's too much dialogue or description etc or maybe too much repeated content.** I feel quite repetitive most times. Sorry about that.

ehhh I know there's not that many people reading this but I love this novel so much. It's my pride and joy! (-ok not really pride i fuck up a lot bc this is me practicing writing chapter-to-chapter novels...srsly tho.-)

-cw

* * *

 **Chapter 11**

 **Understanding**

 _I guess watching half a movie counts as watching a movie, now._ I laughed and rolled my eyes at the sight before me.

Inside Addie's _pink_ -painted room with girly pillows and pretty satin white sheets, Cynthia lay eating chips and kicking her feet up, laughing at the romance in the film.

" _Hahahaha!_ " She shouted.

Addie turned to her slightly and groaned angrily at how she wasn't taking it seriously. She was sitting on the end of the huge bed, holding a pillow and cuddling it while she watched and occasionally sent Cynthia dirty looks that Cyn paid no mind to at all. Whenever Cynthia caught her rolling her eyes at her, she'd just laugh at Addie for taking things to heart too much and throw some popcorn at her from Carmen's bowl.

Carmen, on the other hand, laid on her stomach and rested her head on her own folded arms at the end of the bed as she smiled at the film. "Awh that's so romantic." She'd coo every now and then. Sometimes she'd laugh alongside Cynthia just to bother Addie.

I sat below the end of the bed on a pillow, watching the film somewhat intently but not being able to completely focus since none of the girls could settle down.

Sometimes one would fling a pillow at the other.

Suddenly, in the midst of a scene where the guy of the film had been revealed to be hiding something from the girl, Adeline spoke aloud.

"Do you think that him protecting her like that and keeping her from doing something dangerous means that he returns her feelings?" Addie practically swooned, hugging her pillow to the point of suffocation and looking desperately at the screen.

We all eyed her strangely, making a puzzled face for a moment.

"Addie...this is a _romance_ film. We already _know_ he likes her because the cover of the tape is literally him and her together." Carmen snorted at her.

"But I mean...do you think him keeping her from hurting herself is a _sign_ that he likes her back?" Addie sighed, still looking mindlessly and dreamily at the screen. "Him going out of his way to take the heat for stuff when she keeps asking to do it _for_ him?" She groaned to herself, still looking at the screen.

Cynthia sat up now and began laughing. "Um... _Ad_ s...that's not what's happening in the film. Like. At all." She leaned forward and got a look at her face. Carmen joined in now and turned her head since they were at the end of the bed together, I just turned around and looked up, trying my hardest to pretend I had no idea where this was coming from.

 _Way to be transparent_ … I snorted to myself.

"What's so funny?" Carmen eyed me, now pointing out my smirk.

"Nothin'. Just...she's being weird." I bit my lip, shrugging. Carmen believed it and turned to Addie again.

 _Phew_ awkward…

"Okay, Addie. That's it. You are acting _so loco again_ , girl!" Carmen shook her head in distress at her and Adeline finally awoke from her daydream and quit staring at the television. "We're getting you a date. _Tonight_." She practically demanded and got up.

"Whew!" Cynthia put her arms in the air and cheered. I noticed she was wearing sunglasses for no reason. In the middle of the night. Inside of a home. The girl was crazy.

Addie gave another one of her infamous groans.

"I don't need a date. I'm perfectly fine this way." She crossed her arms, trying to act all independent again.

" _No_ _you ain't_. Get dressed." Carmen demanded, crossing her arms in return.

Cynthia turned on the radio while we all got ready. We all sung aloud to a _Blondie_ song and, as if on queue, the phone rang which made us turn our heads as Addie literally _rushed_ to answer it.

"Girl who is calling you twelve at night?!" Carmen raised a brow and all of us turned as Adeline picked up the pink phone.

Cynthia was on the edge of the bed, jumping up and down looking all giddy. She was excited by the turn of events.

I sat in the chair next to the radio which sat on the dresser. I turned the radio down a little for her and sat in a stupor, red-faced trying to think of what it could be. Suddenly it hit me.

Addie spoke over the phone, twirling her finger on the cord. She tried to act like the conversation was serious but I could see her face contort at something she'd heard. She looked like she'd given up on something.

She hung up and sighed, giving a small groan to us. There was a silence as we waited to hear something from her.

" _Well?!_ " Carmen threw her hands in the air.

"W-what?" Addie looked confused, twirling a finger in her hair now and blushing, looking innocent.

"Who was it? Why are they calling you at twelve? What was it about? C'mon!" Cynthia hissed, asking the obvious questions that they were wondering. I groaned at the fact that Addie was not a very good liar. This was not going to look good for her.

"I-it was just Scott telling me he was taking the nightshift!" Addie looked like she'd been attacked by a group from the insane asylum.

Carmen made an even stranger face; " _Why would he call you about that_?"

Cynthia looked like she was about to burst into laughter.

"No way."

"He calls me every night so that I can know if he's-" Adeline realized mid-sentence that she'd messed up. She messed up _bad_. To Carmen and Cynthia- there _was no danger_ in the night shift. To them...Addie was receiving a random mysterious call in the middle of the night from our manager.

"So that I can know if I have to take the shift." She lied.

"You're too involved with your job." Carmen shook her head at Addie, but funnily enough, Addie looked like she agreed.

"That's Phonesy. Always giving random calls." Cynthia popped her gum, leaning back into the bed.

" _What_?" Addie raised a brow at Cynthia.

"He's always calling Vince, too." She snorted, explaining.

"Oh." Addie looked like she wanted to ask more, but I remembered she told me she wanted to stay out of it and it looked like she remembered it to herself, too.

"But _seriously_ , though...why the heck is Scott calling you? I thought he wouldn't even _let you_ take that night shift or whatever." Carmen legitimately made a confused face. She had one eyebrow raised, and her arms were crossed to let us know she wasn't backing down from the question.

" _Geez_ Carmen...why you always gotta be so nosy?!" Addie huffed as she went through her wardrobe, getting prepared as she'd been told to.

Carmen gave a huff back and a sassy response; "Well maybe I wouldn't have to be so _nosy_ all the time if you just talked to me once in awhile like _normal friends do_."

"Okay y-you wanna know what it is then?!" Addie shouted back. She looked like she thought to herself for a moment. She looked over to me and seemed to remember that she shouldn't tell them about the whole ordeal with the night shift.

" _Yes! Please!_ Will you _finally_ start telling me about what's going on with you, again?!" Carmen pleaded in a praying position, but what she said only set Addie off. I was scared now.

 _Don't tell her, Addie!_

"You know what? Maybe I don't _tell you_ things because you never take me  seriously!" Addie huffed, stomping a foot attempting to be menacing, but instead it just looked cute which made me giggle secretly.

Carmen's face was pale as ice now.

 _Well I guess_ _that's_ _not happening._ I wondered where this was going.

"We don't take you seriously because you take _everything_ seriously, girl! There's nothing wrong with calming down for a bit!" Carmen explained. "And you know I take your _personal_ stuff seriously! So will you tell your friends what is going on for once?!" She requested.

"You take my personal stuff _seriously_ , huh, Carmen? Well try _this_ out- I _like_ Scott!" Addie confessed.

It was getting dramatic now. Carmen's face dropped..

"You actually…?" Carmen seemed dumbfounded. "Oh, Addie I didn't know you _actually_ liked him...girl, I wouldn't make jokes all the time if you'd've just told me that…" she looked genuinely upset now that she knew she'd been making fun of her friend all this time.

"Wait. How long have you liked _Phone Freak_?" Cynthia looked up while Vincent had already lost interest.

Adeline stopped for a moment. Her face went into a full-on blush. She averted eye contact with everyone and spoke shakily; "Th-that's not important! What's important is that Carmen makes jokes about it all the time- but has she even _thought_ about whether or not I may have actually liked him? _No!_ "

"Stop answering yourself, Adds, you sound crazy." Cynthia stated

"Whatever...and _don't call me that_." Adeline hissed and began to put a dress on. "Let's just go out or whatever you idiots wanted to do." she attempted to avoid all questioning, but this only made the remainder of our time in the apartment another hour of awkwardness as we each avoided pushing Addie's buttons. We listened to ABBA and complained about which dress Addie looked best in until we finally finished and left the house to go out.

Outside, the air was light and the sky was pitch black. The fall weather made me smile and look up at the moon for a moment before climbing into Cynthia's boyfriend's car. We drove through the lowly lit pavement and Carmen turned to Cynthia.

"Are we going to your house...er... _apartment_ \- first?" Carmen asked, looking a bit confused.

Cynthia gave a small smirk; "Vince is off work so I'm gonna take him with us."

Carmen gave a shrug for response and an "Okay."

Addie, however, did not react the same.

"No! You _cannot…_ " She huffed loudly, leaning over the back seat and speaking desperately.

Carmen and I both gave a giggle, except my own was ended quickly when I had a flashback to Vincent's silvery eyes piercing my soul as he shouted at Addie in our faces.

 _Did I really feel threatened there? In front of everybody? How can someone so quiet and withdrawn give off such a spooky aura?_ I wondered to myself and then returned to reality when Carmen spoke in a gossip-loving tone.

" _Your man_ and Adeline got into a fight the other day." Carmen snickered, turning to Cynthia with a toothy grin.

Adeline still leaned over the seat just slightly, looking disbelieving of Carmen's humour about it. I put my hand on Addie's shoulder and motioned for her to sit down. She sat and gave me a glance that said it all. Her face contorted into a sadness that I could relate to, as if to say ' _You get it, right?_ '. I just gave a nod and she huffed, crossing her arms and looking out the window. A soft blush touched her cheeks as the girls spoke and I listened in closely.

"Oh... _yeaahhh…_ " Cynthia squinted her eyes as she drove. I could tell she was thinking back based on her sing-song voice alone. "He was _real_ pissed the other day…" she gave a small laugh and turned to see Addie's awkward state. I saw it register on Cynthia's face- that it had affected Addie. "Hey... _Add_ s." She said, somewhat softly, which surprised me. Cynthia had an out-of-character soft side every now and then that always surprised me.

 _Perhaps she really wasn't joking about 'protecting us'._ I huffed in wonder to myself at the strangeness of Cynthia's relationship with Adeline and I.

" _Don't call me that_." Addie groaned, her stare still remaining towards the window.

Cynthia ignored it entirely and continued, "Look…" she sighed, "Vincie gets angry _all the time_ at all kinds of stuff…" she gave a small smirk that I could only see in the reflection of the car mirror. The smirk faded as she added; "I'm sure he barely even remembers whatever happened between you two." Cynthia looked in the mirror to see Addie still looking out the window

Cynthia's voice changed to a tone that even _she_ was uncomfortable using. I could tell, for whatever reason, she was actually trying to connect with Addie now. "He's not as... _scary_ as everyone makes him out to be." she gave a smile to herself and huffed a small laugh beneath her breath that confused both Carmen and I. "I figure...maybe Vince is always on the outs with people 'cause they don't _understand_ him like I do. You feel the same way 'bout _Phone-Guy_ or whatever, right? You know what I mean?" She looked in her car mirror now to see Addie turned back around and blushing across her face. I gave a small laugh that no one noticed due to the fact that Cynthia still continued to never remember Scott's name. I was pretty sure it was on purpose. The same reason that Addie never called Vincent _"Vince"_.

"Whaddaya mean…?" Addie grumbled beneath her breath, looking down at her lap while her arms still remained crossed.

Cynthia gave another small smile. " _You_ know...Everyone is always looking at me like i'm _crazy_ for liking Vince...like it's _insane_ to like someone that they consider a creep, criminal, whatever they've called him…" she trailed off for only a moment. I could just see her mind wandering from the way she looked off at the road. "...but I always know that the reason I'm with him is because I'm one of the few people who can _understand_ him. All those people who tell me those things about him... _they_ never gave Vince a chance. They never took the time to really know him and understand him. You feel the same way about Phone-boy, right?"

Carmen coughed in a whisper; " _Scott…_ "

"Right... _Scott_ …." Cynthia rolled her eyes and pursed her lips, accepting Carmen's correction out of annoyance.

Addie just sighed and pulled her arms out of the cross and closing her eyes. It was like she _hated_ the fact that Cynthia was able to read into her. But she had to admit…  
"Yes." She nodded. " _I get what you mean…_ " she growled, not looking at Cynthia directly.

Cynthia's pursed lips turned to a smile when she heard this and she glanced once more at Addie.

"Yep. Addie's the only one who obeys all of Scott's rules...follows the schedule he orders us to follow that none of _us_ do…" Carmen laughed, agreeing with this and now realizing what she had only ever dismissed as Addie's controlling personality before.

"Listens to his annoying speeches at the employee meetings...takes over for his shifts…" I added to the list, giggling.

The two of us turned to Addie at the same time, who reacted with a wide-eyed face and then a blush, looking back out of the window to avoid our gaze.

"Oh all of the sudden _now_ you're insightful into my crushes?" She crossed her arms once more, huffing at Carmen.

Carmen's smile faded and she looked apologetically at the girl who would not return her eye contact. "Addie...I'm _really_ sorry. Why didn't you ever tell me?"

Addie didn't give an answer and only squinted her eyes for a moment. There was an awkward silence that ensued for the next minute or so as Cynthia drove through the dark of night towards her place on the outside of downtown. We passed through fields of nothing but grass and the occasional lighted truck stop beside the small road. I assumed they were there since the road was so common a way to travel into the city from the rural parts of town.

Adeline's feeble voice finally spoke; " _Because…_ " she moaned. "You thought it was _sooo darn funny_." her voice hissed; "The idea of the _controlling employee_ having a crush on her manager. _Hahaha so funny_... _power-hungry_ girl.. _.desperate_ to find a man she can _control_ and _take advantage_ of…."

I saw the blood drain from both Cynthia and Carmen's faces as if to say that they had been judged properly. It was true. That was why the joke had gone on, and the truth was: _that_ was what had bothered Addie. That she had been painted as a power-hungry girl looking for a management position or a man she could possess and manipulate through his role.

There was a lot of stuff I had never learned about Addie. She never opened up to me all that much, even though I seemed to be close friend. I could never tell if her happy face meant that she was happy to be better than me or if it was genuine happiness. And I _seriously_ could never tell if she flat-out hated Cynthia, or secretly liked her and she never let it be known because she disliked the girl's boyfriend. But despite all that- despite the fact that she _was_ controlling, a bit OCD, and kind of a type-A personality girl that _did_ have a crush on her manager, there was one thing I _had_ learned about Adeline Jensen- and that was that she was not _power-hungry_. Adeline only ever used her controlling personality and overbearing ways as a way of expressing her love and care for her friends.

She was the soccer-mom without a family, as funny as it was. If there wasn't something she could do to help out, she'd go practically insane.

"Adeline…" Carmen almost broke into tears...I could swear I saw it in her face, but she fought it. "Is that what you think _we think about you_?"

Addie groaned and her shoulders tensed. " _Maybe...maybe not…_ " she shook her head in anger. "Either way- does it matter? That's how you've made me out to be!"

 _Damn Addie...way to nail it._ I almost screamed at the drama before me. It was all so deeply rooted, but it was necessary and scarily accurate.

"Addie…" Carmen turned her whole body in the seat now; her face showing a sorrowful expression. "I'm _so sorry_." she gave a huge huff, as if she were breathless. She didn't know what to say that would mend it. "I really am."

I saw Adeline refuse to turn to meet her face at all.

"But there's something you should know...and I'm gonna tell it to you _now_." Carmen looked shakey now. "You are _not_ some over controlling _bitch._ You're just...a little...um…"

 _Oh man that was a bad recovery Carmen_. I decided I had to butt in.

"What she _means_ to say, Addie, is that you're _not_ over controlling and you're _not_ trying to manipulate Scott. In fact, Addie…" I took a deep breath.

Adeline turned and gave her attention to me now, which surprised me and stressed me out more.

"You _are_ a little controlling and overbearing. But, _Addie_ , you only are like that because that's your way of showing you care!" I practically shouted. "Just like Carmen makes dumb jokes about people to show _she_ cares! _That's why you covered for all of Scott's shifts!_ You weren't trying to get his job just like Carmen was never trying to say something about your personality. You were just trying to show Scott you cared, the same way that Carmen was trying to show you she was there for you." I spouted, wondering where the words were coming from. They felt like they were coming from thin air, but as I used them, they felt much heavier.

Addie gave me a small smile. "You're right, Mabel." she turned and Carmen just stared at the two of us for a moment. "You always understand…." Addie never finished her statement, really, but she made a strange face that showed she was thinking on something.

The car made a stop and I realized that we were at the apartment now.

"Alright, I'm gonna go get my boyfriend. We good now?" Cynthia winced at us all.

We all exchanged glances and Carmen gave one more; _"I'm sorry._ " which Addie responded with; "I know. I forgive you. I'm sorry I didn't trust you enough to tell you sooner."

I gave a nod and smiled, stating, "We're good." to Cynthia. Cynthia gave a nod back and she and Carmen left to go get Vincent.

As soon as they left, Addie turned to me.

"They still don't understand the whole _Vincent_ situation, though." She said his name with disgust. "You understand, right? You were right there, too…" she trailed off, wincing as she remembered the encounter just as I had a few moments ago.

I gave a heavy nod. " _His stare_ …." I added and she nodded back.

Adeline was glad I understood; "He _really_ looked like…"

We both finished in unison; " _He was gonna kill us._ "

After stating it in unison, we sat there for a moment of surprise that we'd both thought the same. Then, we broke out into a full-on laugh. Tears and all.

I wiped the tears from my eyes and calmed down.

"Yeah. He sure was creepy. I think it's probably all those drugs." I supposed.

"Yeah." Addie nodded in a face that said she agreed _all the way_.

Eventually Carmen returned alongside Cynthia and her boyfriend, Vincent, who was smoking a cigarette and had his hair pulled back as usual. It was messy and greasy, while his facial hair was still a stubbly mess. Instead of wearing his usual uniform that we all wore for Fazbear's, he was wearing ripped jeans, a sleeveless white tank, and a black leather jacket. It surprised me since I'd not seen him much outside of work. _Goth weirdos…_ I laughed to myself at both Cynthia and Vincent's rather…'metal' attire.

Carmen took a seat in the back alongside Addie and I, while Vincent sat shotgun beside his girlfriend who drove us. As he got into the car he turned around; "Wassup freaks?" he laughed at us, making Addie roll her eyes, and I smile awkwardly. He tossed his cigarette out the window and we drove off.

After driving through countless scary neighborhoods we finally reached the nicer side of downtown which had all the cool clubs. If there was one thing that was good about Vincent, it was that he made me feel safer in the scarier side of town since he was equally scary, at the very least.

Once we reached a club that all of us agreed on, we left the car and walked through the dark parking lot, lit only by a couple street lamps and the light of the moon. In no time we were entering the crowded scene.

I could tell Addie was just as uninterested as when we tried to get her on a date, the last time we all went out. Cynthia, however, was _extra_ interested since her boyfriend was off with us, which meant we had to spend an awkward couple of hours being around him while the two talked to each other.

Their speaking was so strange. There was a lot of small phrases and forcefulness between them, I noticed. Cynthia would grab him, and they'd be off in a flash messing with something they weren't supposed to be messing with.

Carmen, on the other hand, was the social butterfly. She'd flirt and wave with anyone we ran into. And if the person was friendly enough to her, she'd introduce them to Addie. It was weird but funny. I wondered if Carmen was doing it to annoy Addie or if it was because she found Addie's crush she _already had_ unacceptable or something.

Addie would be nice enough to at least greet the people Carmen brought to her, but she'd proceed to walk away on purpose. I felt bad for her. She wasn't interested in anyone. There was already someone she liked and they were off on night shift busy and possibly in danger, according to her. What was worse was there was practically no way to stop Carmen's drive to get Addie a date.

We spent hours at the club until probably not many people were left (that were conscious, at least). Carmen was _still_ bugging Addie and I was sure she was gonna _lose it_ any minute now.

We sat in the corner of the club at a table. Vincent and Cynthia sat close together across from Addie, Carmen and I who sat tightly on the other side of the booth. The blue and purplish lights made the entirety of the club a dark-blue haze which was cast upon just about everything.

We all sat and chatted, eating a little and drinking some. I noticed everyone was calm except for…

The drama queen of the night...

" _Addie?_ " Carmen groaned at her, leaning to look her in the eyes.

Adeline messed with her nails and bit her lip, looking away from us.

"Is there something wrong? You've been acting- _super weird_ lately, Addie. And I am _not_ talkin' about the whole crush-on-Scott thing." Carmen sounded drained of energy also now. Her tone changed to a seriousness I'd never heard before. My own face went red.

"You seem extra stressed, extra worried, and extra _jumpy_. I even saw you flinch from some of the kids yesterday near the stage at work." Carmen sighed and tried to get real with her.

Addie got up and began to pace, looking like she was going to mess her hair up and hyperventilate or something.

 _Don't tell them_. I thought to myself.

"I wasn't flinching from the kids it was…n-nevermind…" She sighed, breathing heavily. I noticed Vincent look up from whatever alcohol he had been drinking and stirring.

"So you just wanna say some dumb excuse again and tell me this is all a _coincidence_? I thought we were over this whole not-trusting-me thing, Addie!" Carmen threw her hands in the air, getting up to confront her.

Adeline looked like she thought to herself for a moment. She glanced at me and remembered, once again, that she wasn't supposed to talk about the night shift. Especially with half the employees there at the table, Vincent included.

Something suddenly hit me.

 _Vincent…_ I looked over to see him making a knowing face at Addie. His eye twitched a little.

 _Doesn't he_ _know_ _about the supposed 'Haunted' night shift_ _since he works it?_

 _How are you gonna get outta this_ _now_ _, Addie?_ I wondered, hoping she and Carmen would both calm down. I didn't want Carmen and everyone else freaking out about this whole night shift thing, especially with Vincent freaking out at us at the mere mentioning of it.

Addeline recognized the hole she'd dug herself into, but suddenly I saw her light up, looking like she'd remembered something. She walked off quickly, looking at her watch.

There was a small awkward silence and then Carmen just laughed it off.

"That girl is so weird…" she shook her head.

Cynthia grinned back and turned to Vincent. "Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you...she told us she has a crush on Phone-"

" _Scott_." Carmen instantly corrected her.

"Scott. Right."

" _Everyone saw that coming._ " Vincent growled underneath his breath and returned to his drink.

"I'm still wondering how long she's liked him. You think he likes her back?" Cynthia looked up, making imaginative faces while Vincent had already lost interest in the whereabouts of his manager's heart.

I gave a sturdy nod which made Carmen and her turn to me.

"Really? How do you know?" Cynthia asked, smirking.

She loved gossip just as much as Carmen, it seemed.

"One time when Addie dragged Carmen and I along to work to cover Scott's shift...he was _super_ tired." I laughed at the whole ordeal. It was one of the first times she'd covered for him while I was there. "When she was turned to me, I _totally_ saw him staring at her." I snorted, remembering his tired, innocent face.

Cynthia and Carmen giggled, eating their sandwiches with a peaked interest in my newfound knowledge.

"You sure you ain't makin' this up, girl?" Carmen laughed. "Scott thinks that the Boss is some kind of all-knowing being that will fire him in an instant if he so much as even pats any of us on the back."

I gave a nod; "He was super tired. It was hard for him to conceal." I smirked. The two exchanged glances.

"You know what this means?" Carmen smiled toothily at her friend, Cyn. Cynthia giggled impishly and gave a nod.

"Are we about to make this happen?" She asked.

"Oh _hell yes_." Carmen cheered and the two of them became so loud in their cheering and squealing that Vincent awoke from his half-asleep, drunken stupor and looked at them as if he'd been attacked by wolves in his sleep.

"What the-?" He looked to Cynthia who turned to him and instantly pulled him out of the booth, hands all over him as she did so.

"We goin'?" Vincent asked, looking still confused as he was pulled up.

Cynthia nodded and giggled some more. "You're so cute in that jacket." she commented.

"Yeah, yeah." Vincent rolled his eyes, but secretly smiled some as Cynthia wrapped her arm around his waist and they walked off to the car.

"Now, Vince, _sweetie_...you gotta give me a little information here…" I heard her speak to him as they walked ahead of us off to the car.

"Let's find Addie." Carmen suggested. I was entirely confused as to what was happening.

"Sorry- _what are we doing_?" I asked.

"Shhhh. No time- let's find Addie." Carmen shushed me and we were off to find Adeline. We found her hanging up a payphone outside and she turned to us, blushing.

"Whatsup?" Carmen waved.

"N-nothing. Just...checking on Scott." She admitted.

"Cool he's off work now, right?" Carmen smiled casually, which made Addie recognize there was something suspicious going on. Normally Carmen would have made some kind of funny joke or made some sort of comment, which is exactly why Addie was hesitant to say who.

"Y-yeah. He just got off of the night shift. W-why?" Adeline asked.

Carmen just gave a shrug. "No reason. We're leaving now so let's go to the car."

We all made our way to the car and Adeline watched Carmen hesitantly. We sat in the back where Cynthia and Vincent turned to when we got in the car.

"'Sup? Ready to go?" Cynthia asked, sliding her sunglasses on for no reason other than to look cool since it was the middle of the night and almost the break of dawn now.

Some of us were tired, but Vincent clearly was used to these hours, although he seemed tired. He must have been used to keeping himself awake.

We drove off, remaining in the nicer side of downtown but going to where some different apartments were.

"And is _anyone_ gonna tell me where we're going? _No. Of course not._ " Addie ranted to herself.

"You're answering yourself again, Adds." Cynthia stated plainly.

"Don't call me that." Addie responded, equally plainly.

As we pulled up, Vincent gave a groan "Oh my God why the hell are we _actually_ ….?"

"SHHH" Carmen and Cynthia shushed him.

Adeline looked at the three of them in outrage that they were _clearly_ keeping a secret from her. She turned to me and I just shrugged.

We pulled up to a nice apartment complex which had apartments housing what looked like rich college kids and lots of single people. It wasn't expensive, but it was pretty nice. I definitely couldn't afford it with what I made now, even without paying for college.

Cynthia, Carmen, and even Vincent turned to Addie and grinned, making Addie's face fall.

"Oh. no. _What the hell are we doing_?" she crossed her arms, eyeing them all.

"You ready?" Carmen raised an eyebrow.

Addie huffed; "Ready for _what?!_ "

"I think you know." Cynthia smirked evilly in a way I'd never seen before. Was it enjoyment? Or was it her sadism?

I started to piece things together and I already had a guess…

"I have no idea what the he-!" Addie was yanked out of the car by Cynthia and already squirming; "LET GO OF ME, YOU FREAK!"

"Chill out, girl." Carmen laughed and we all made our way to the complex. We made our way up some stairs and Cynthia looked to Vincent after two floors up, dragging Adeline who was getting tired of trying to escape her vicious claw-like clutch. We walked past a couple doors and then...

"This it?" She asked her boyfriend.

Vincent gave a groan and a nod. "Yep. This is it. I can tell because it's reminding me of the general aura of _obnoxious_ and _annoying_." he joked, looking like he'd give anything to not have to be here. He turned to Addie, making her practically have a heart attack. "Alright, girly-girl. You ready to profess your love?" he asked, dragging her in front of the door.

"W-wha- _EXCUSE ME?!_ " She turned to him.

Man she had guts, sticking up to him after having a scary encounter with the creep. She turned to Carmen.

" _Do not tell me this is…_ " She breathed heavily, looking like she was _definitely_ gonna have a heart attack now. Carmen gave a regretful nod, trying her hardest not to smile. I could tell she felt bad, but she wanted this to happen...so she clearly didn't feel _too_ bad.

"You are so dead…" Addie's eyes twitched.

"WOAH WOAH okay, Ads, time to chill. Make sure you look nice." Cynthia came over to her, fixing her hair.

"Do _NOT_ call me that!" She hissed back to Cyn and eventually shooed her away; "I can fix my hair _myself, thank you_. But- I am NOT doing this." She clarified. Right as she said that, Vincent went behind her and knocked on the door, making Addie freak out and turn around. Within _seconds_ the door opened to reveal a worn-out Scott.

His shirt was unbuttoned at the top, his sleeves were pulled up and he was literally holding an entire bottle of liquor with the cap in the other hand.

" _Good news, Phone freak!_ " Vincent said in a weirdly taunting voice that told me they had a history or something. "You're not gonna spend the rest of your days alone like everyone thought!" Vincent looked like he was annoyed to be here.

Scott instantly went off on him; "Okay- number one, I have told you _multiple times_ to not call me, _YOUR MANAGER,_ that! Two- what the hell are you talking ab-?" he turned to see all of us at his door, Addie standing front and center while Vincent leaned on the edge of the doorway, looking chill as hell. Like he was welcome there or something.

 _Is he always a douche like this?_ I still wondered how Cynthia put up with him.

Scott looked to Adeline who, in turn, was staring at the alcohol he had.

"You...gonna drink all that…?" She smirked at him, pointing at the entire bottle of whiskey in his hand.

"Yep. About to drink the stress away." He nodded plainly, raising it as he looked angrily at Vincent and took a giant sip.

 _Man he hates Vincent. I would drink a lot too, if I had a night shift like Addie explained._ I thought to myself, wanting desperately to laugh. The environment was too volatile to do that, though.

"Better question, actually." Scott spoke after drinking, scratching his head; "Uhh... _why are you guys all at my house?_ " he winced.

We all stood awkwardly and Vincent patted Addie's shoulder as he still leaned on the door. Addie made an angry face at him for touching her.

" _Like I said..._ Good news. Girly-girl's got somethin' to tell ya." He grinned in a fake smile at Scott, which clearly Scott was used to from Vincent. "Go on, tell him." He turned back to Addie for a moment.

"Um…." Addie grabbed her own arm and looked super awkward.

Scott raised an eyebrow and actually started to drink some more before putting his glasses back on to see what Addie was gonna say.

"Wasn't I _just_ talking to you on the-?" Scott made a weird face and then Addie's face got red.

"JUST TELL HIM!" Carmen shouted. " _Madre mia…_ " she sighed to herself.

"Okay! Okay…" Addie huffed at Carmen, turning her hands into fists and then crossing her arms awkwardly as she turned back to Scott. "Okay, so I should have told you earlier, but Mabel was spying on us-"

" _What?!_ " Scott interrupted.

"Not important." Addie dismissed and continued, "I've been taking over for your shift and doing all of this stuff because I care about my job a lot…"

" _Okay…?_ " Scott looked seriously puzzled as to what was going on. I felt super bad for him, even more so now.

"But that's not the _only reason why_ …" Addie sighed. Her face got flushed and suddenly I saw it register on Scott's face, too. His face looked like he couldn't believe it.

"You see...I was also doing it because I may or may not have had a little bit of a _crush on you_ …?" Addie raised her voice and spoke very quietly, her voice diminishing in volume with each word. It sounded like a question. Mostly because she looked like she was horrified of getting rejected. Right in front of everyone. Who could blame her?

Also, she knew that Scott would have a fit about it. Which was what was about to happen.

"Okay." Scott stated, looking like he wasn't breathing or something. He ran his hand through his hair and looked around, now breathing in and out really deeply. "Is this real…?" I heard him whisper.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing...um…." He made a weird face. " _Why_ exactly did you bring….one, two…" he counted, " _three of my employees_ plus an employee's girlfriend here to hear you say that?" he asked seriously, looking like he was going to have a heart attack.

"Ayayay... _because we had to force her to tell you_." Carmen groaned at Scott from afar.

"You do realize I'm not supposed to even talk to you guys regularly outside of work?" He told them.

" _Is that even a legal rule to make_?" Cynthia shook her head, making a sassy face at Scott.

"You call _her_ every night." Carmen pointed out, pointing at Addie, equally as sassy as Cynthia. I resisted the urge to laugh.

"Uh…." Scott stopped speaking. "Ok, look." He tried to whisper to Addie. "I _seriously_ cannot give you a raise. But you're my most loyal employee, so what is it you want?"

Addie made an offended face and crossed her arms. "A _date_."

"A day off? Okay, fine I can do that…" Scott placed the bottle down on a counter to the right of himself and then pulled out a calendar. "What day?" He asked.

" _NOT A DAY OFF._ I want a date. As in a _date_. You and me." Addie put a hand on her hip.

Scott looked at her in disbelief for a literal minute or so. There was an awkward silence.

" _Seriously?_ " He laughed.

Addie looked taken aback and turned to us for a second.

"Yes _seriously_. Why are you laughing?!" She sounded pissed now.

This was hilariously awkward. Just as I expected. "I _freakin' like you_! So quit laughing! Jesus fucking Christ, Scott!" and with that, she _hit him on the shoulder_.

That was it. I couldn't take it anymore. I broke out laughing, in tears.

"The relationship hasn't even begun and they're like a married couple…" Carmen laughed alongside me.

"Okay, okay! Geez. I just found it _very_ hard to believe y'know…." Scott held his shoulder for a second.

" _What_ hard to believe _?!_ "

"That _you_ like _me_ …"

"Wh-why?!"

"Uhh...I dunno. I've had a crush on you, but I thought there was no chance…" Scott admitted, not even blushing.

"Why's that?" Addie stood, looking shy all of the sudden.

 _Now_ Scott was blushing.

"You're so…" Scott didn't finish.

"And I'm just…y'know..." he gave a sigh. "I mean _come on_ I'm the manager of a _children's restaurant_."

"If that isn't enough..uhhh...I have _no life_ because of it. And even then, if I did- _I'm a total dork._ " Scott was so harshly real about himself that it made Carmen and I exchange depressed glances.

"Damn, Scott…" Carmen raised a brow.

Addie's face was red. She _knew_ this was now going to have to turn into her explaining why she liked him eventually. Scott would never just accept something like this.

"I'm your employee. Which means I make less money and I still have no life. What makes me any better than you?" She pointed out, raising her own eyebrow.

 _You could have complimented him or something...but instead you lowered yourself to his level_... _Seriously, Addie?_ I shook my head at her.

"You're...cute." Scott blushed. "And you're smart. _And_ you're my best employee. You get everything done before I even ask for it. You're loyal. And on top of that you even took over my shifts just for the sake of helping me. Any guy would date you."

Adeline, somehow disbelieving of all this, was unable to accept the compliments. Her face was totally red and she couldn't even make eye contact with Scott anymore.

"So why would you date a lame guy like me?" He asked, entirely serious.

"That's what _I said_!" Carmen shouted, reminding him that a bunch of his other employees were there witnessing this all.

"Not helping." I shot Carmen a glare and she shrugged at me as if she were innocent.

The two ignored Carmen's comments and Addie stood, looking baffled for a moment. All the compliments surprised her. So much so that she'd lost her thought for a moment due to all her mental energy being spent on trying to think about all the nice things that had just been said.

Scott barely ever told her those things even in the _employee_ sort of way. All her hard work had just been taken for granted before. Or maybe it wasn't that.

Perhaps, now that I was seeing it, Scott just didn't want to compliment her because he was…. _scared to_! I snorted a little, trying hard not to laugh again. Finally Addie gathered her thoughts and spoke after thinking of how to respond.

"You're not... _lame…"_ Addie scratched her head, turning back to him but still not having the courage to look at him. "You risk your life every night for me." She blushed. "I know you do it for me, too, so don't lie…" She added. "And that's like...super romantic." Addie blushed pink.

Scott was blushing too. "I mean...I…uhhh...y'know…"

Addie smiled; " _And_ I haven't heard you say a single thing about me that doesn't also apply to _you_. You're loyal, you help _me_ , you're smart…" Addie blushed extra and faced him even less now, facing entirely to her right at the baseboard of the plain wall. "...and, um, you're cute." She added. Scott stood there now, looking just as baffled as Addie was not two seconds ago. There was a small silence but instead of awkwardness filling it, there was only cuteness.

Carmen and Cynthia squealed quietly at the sight of a blushing Addie facing away from her crush while he now spoke since he didn't know what else to say.

"Well, uhhh...I like you, too, soo…." He trailed off, looking spaced out as he watched the bashful Addie's face. Adeline bit her lip, not sure what to say either. I wondered how weird this was about to get, because I'd already thought we'd hit the awkward limit with these two until…

"Oh for _fuck's sake_ will you two just plan out a date or something?! It's 7 AM and I'm still not done partying." Vincent groaned loudly as he returned in view of Scott, nearby Addie.

" _When will I ever get to escape you?_ " Scott grumbled to himself, narrowing his stare on Vincent angrily. The dark circles under his eyes seemed to reveal themselves even more with his unamused stare.

"You could always try _running_." Vincent grinned widely as he made a creepy face at him and rose his hands as claws.

"Funny." Scott continued his unamused expression and tone with him.

 _What was up with those two?_ I was deep in thought about how strange they were with each other.

"Any ways...if you _seriously_ for some reason wanna date me...I don't even know when I'm available, because- well, _you_ know." Scott sighed and turned to the bashful Adeline who ignored Vincent.

Addie smiled and suddenly lit up. "How about _now_?"

"Huh?" Scott looked confused.

"Well...I can _tell_ they're all about to make me take them to my home so they can raid my wine cabinet…" Addie grinned glancing our way and then turning back around.

"Damnit! She's good." Cynthia hissed.

Adeline ignored her and continued; "If you want, you can come with us and you can raid it, too." She laughed.

Scott looked at all of us for a moment and then made a strange face. "Oh-kay…."

"But...you guys gotta promise me you won't tell the Boss about this." He requested, seriously.

"Of course I won't." Addie looked at him like he was crazy.

"Oh...I know _you_ won't…" He eyed Vincent and Carmen.

"I ain't sayin' nothin' if you're dating my friend!" Carmen swore, raising her hands innocently.

Vince gave a groan for a minute until Cynthia came up behind him and hit him in the side.

" _Ow!_ Okay I won't say anything." Vincent sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Okay I'll come." Scott turned to Addie.

" _Phone guy_ is _not_ getting in my car, though." Vincent hissed, being petty on purpose.

Cynthia seemed to know this was a point with no argument, but Scott didn't care.

"I have my own car, you know, _Purple guy._ " Scott grinned at Vincent and walked right past him, setting him off.

Cynthia held her boyfriend back. "Chill out." She sighed at Vincent, who was acting like an angry child after the taunt.

I winced at this as we all walked back out to the parking lot. "Where'd he get _that_ from?" I wondered aloud.

"The car." Cynthia smirked at me and I suddenly understood.

"Oh." I laughed, remembering the ridiculous hue that Vincent had painted his car. He'd been quite infamous for it now for a while. I didn't know that even _Scott_ took notice to it. I wondered why or how he had.

I didn't know what was weirder about this night; the way Vincent and Scott treated each other, or the fact that we'd somehow managed to get Addie to let Vincent stay over. Either way, there was no way I was going to miss out on what could possibly be one of the most uneventful, dramatic, or even all-around awkward night ever for the Fazbear employees.

* * *

 **Week 5 Update** by/before august 31st

I will attempt to make it a 2-part update to make up for the absence of an update last week. However, I am just now beginning full-time college classes so here's to hoping I've got time! (This chapter 11 leads straight into chapter 12 btw. So it's kinda a second part. I would have made this week a 2 part if I didn't fuck up so much lol)


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